Charlotte Ray’s father, Reverend Charles Bennett Ray, was a minister and abolitionist, actively working with the Underground Railroad. He also owned an African American newspaper, the Colored American. His three daughters all received an education. Charlotte attended the Institution for the Education of Colored Youth, the only school in the nation’s capital that enrolled students of color. She later enrolled at Howard University and earned a degree. Her sisters also earned degrees. One of the sisters, a poet, received a master’s degree.
After Ray completed her undergraduate education, she taught at Howard University, in their Preparatory and Normal Department where she assisted in training school teachers. Later she applied to the Howard University School of Law. Whether her application listing her name as C.E. Ray was a factor in her admittance is still disputed, but Howard University at that time was committed to accepting both men and women. When she completed her law degree, she became the First African American Woman lawyer in the United States.
After Ray completed her undergraduate education, she taught at Howard University, in their Preparatory and Normal Department where she assisted in training school teachers. Later she applied to the Howard University School of Law. Whether her application listing her name as C.E. Ray was a factor in her admittance is still disputed, but Howard University at that time was committed to accepting both men and women. When she completed her law degree, she became the First African American Woman lawyer in the United States.
She was also the First Woman allowed to argue before Washington, D.C.’s Supreme Court. In the case Gadley v. Gadley, she successfully defended an uneducated woman who was in an abusive relationship and wanted a divorce. She was known to be eloquent, and she placed advertisements in Frederick Douglass’ newspaper, the New National Era and Citizen, but neither asset drew enoughclients for her to be successful in attracting clients. Perhaps another factor was that, at that time, men prevented women from joining professional associations that aided advancement, regardless of their credentials.
The notorious Kate Kane Rossi, a firebrand lawyer in Chicago, said of Charlotte Ray, “although a lawyer of decided ability, on account of prejudice [she] was not able to obtain sufficient legal business and had to give up. . .active practice.” The double burden of having dark skin and being a woman was too much to overcome.
After a few years Ray moved to New York and went back to teaching. In Brooklyn, where she taught in the public school system, she married. The fight was still in her, however, and she became an active suffragist. She was a delegate to the National Woman’s Suffrage Association conference in 1876. She was also an active member of National Association of Colored Women. Little is known of the last decades of her life.
