Black Men, White Women in the Law
By Alton H. Maddox, Jr.

Chief Justice Roger Taney's infamous dictum in Dred Scott that "no Negro has any rights that whites are bound to respect" is usually understood with respect to the status of enslaved Africans but it could also apply to white women, Indians, Latinos and Asians. Without any understanding of history, it may be surprising that the white man also oppressed "his" woman.

White women owe their freedom to Black men. When the "founding fathers" framed the Constitution in 1789, neither white women, Blacks nor Indians enjoyed constitutional protections. The United States was an all-white, male, secret society. All-white country clubs would later become ancillary venues for power meetings in addition to rest and relaxation.

Frederick Douglass would not only tirelessly carry the torch for the liberation of enslaved Africans but he would also carry a second torch for the enfranchisement of white women. This movement started at a suffrage convention in Seneca Falls, New York in July 1848. Douglass would be its first keynote speaker and would become a tireless advocate for woman's suffrage.

In 1844, Macon B. Allen had become the first so-called "minority" lawyer in the United States after his admission to the Maine bar. In 1847, he became the first "minority" judge in the United States. At this time, white women were barred from both the legal profession and the bench in addition to polling booths.

After Chief Justice Taney died in 1864, Dr. John Swett Rock, a physician, recognized a golden opportunity for a Black person to be admitted to practice law before the United States Supreme Court. Sen. Charles Sumner sponsored Dr. Rock's application. He was admitted on February 1, 1865, the date President Abraham Lincoln signed a joint resolution of Congress proposing the Thirteenth Amendment.

After Dr. Rock had been admitted to the High Court, he was stopped and detained on the same day for being unable to produce a pass authorizing his travel back to Massachusetts. Today, Terry v. Ohio (1968) authorizes a "stop and frisk" of Blacks and the production of documents authorizing travel by them.

A white woman would not be allowed to appear before the United States Supreme Court until February 13, 1879. This honor goes to Belva Ann Lockwood who was sponsored by Prof. Albert G. Riddle of Howard University Law School. The United States Supreme Court had ruled in 1873 that it was "the law of the Creator" that women are limited to "the noble and benign offices of wife and mother".

While a ruling of the United States Supreme Court can control federal courts, federalism falls far short of preventing a state from controlling its own admission standards for attorneys to practice law in the state. Charlotte Ray was graduated from Howard University Law School in 1872. Only three white women had previously graduated from a law school.

Reportedly, Ms. Ray applied for admission to the District of Columbia bar under "C.E. Ray." The bar examiners supposedly believed that she was a "he". White women would later argue that they should also be allowed to practice law. Ray would give up the practice of law, move to Brooklyn and embark on a teaching career. Nonetheless, she would become, arguably, the nation's first female lawyer.

Facing intense hostility, George Lewis Ruffin was admitted to the Harvard Law School in 1868. He became its first Black graduate and the first Black graduate of any law school in the nation. A white woman had no shot at being admitted to the prestigious law school until, at least, 1953. Brown v. Board of Education aided the admission of a white woman to Harvard Law School.

President Barack Obama's appointment of U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan, a Harvard law graduate, stands on the shoulders of countless Black men and women including Prof. Derrick Bell who demanded fair treatment for women at Harvard Law School; Justice Thurgood Marshall who chose Kagan as one of his clerks and, afterwards, she would follow Marshall as U.S. solicitor general.

President Obama is now appointing Kagan to be a justice of the United States Supreme Court even though she hired no Black nor Latino professor at Harvard Law School and there was also a pool of Blacks who could share the Black experience on the High Court. Blacks have no voice on the High Court. They have the greatest need for a voice in the highest echelons of the judicial branch of government..

When Hugh Hamilton of WBAI-FM wrote for the City Sun, his editor, Utrice Leid, instructed him that every news story has a Black angle. In many instances, you must use critical thinking and Black history to find it. The Black angle to this story about Kagan will not be heard over the airwaves and read in the newspapers. Moreover, a layperson can sit on the United States Supreme Court.

Blacks must stop relying on good Samaritans. Freedom is not free. We must build and support our own institutions. It starts with communications. The critical message was written in the first editorial of Freedom's Journal on March 16, 1827: "We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us."

5/14/10