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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 January 2009
In recent years historians have begun to show considerable interest in the legal history of the South. But while much of this interest has touched on Southern lawyers and notions of professionalization, scant attention has been paid to the scores of black lawyers who were admitted to the bar in the post-Civil War period. Who were these men? Where did they acquire their legal training and at what cost? What sort of practices did they run? How successful were they? What follows is an attempt to answer some of these questions, taking as a case study the state of South Carolina, cradle of secession, and, by any measure, one of the most conservative (and recalcitrant) Southern states during the Reconstruction and Redemption periods.
1 Bodenhamer, David J. and Ely, James W. Jr., eds., Ambivalent Legacy: A Legal History of the South (Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 1984)Google Scholar; Bryson, W. Hamilton and Shepard, E. Lee, “The Virginia Bar, 1870–1900,” in Gawalt, Gerard W., ed., The New High Priests: Lawyers in Post-Civil War America (Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1984), 171–86.Google Scholar
2 This figure is based on the following sources: Charleston News and Courier; Columbia Daily Register; Reynolds, Emily and Faunt, Joan, eds., Biographical Directory of the Senate of South Carolina, 1776–1964 (Columbia: South Carolina Archives Department, 1964)Google Scholar; Holt, Thomas, Black over White: Negro Political Leadership in South Carolina during Reconstruction (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1977), 229–41Google Scholar; Catalogue of Allen University, 1911–1912 (Columbia, 1912), 56–59Google Scholar. The Supreme Court's records of admission do not identify lawyers by race. See Solicitors' Roll, Supreme Court, Columbia.
3 Tindall, George B., South Carolina Negroes, 1877–1900 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1952), 144.Google Scholar
4 Holt, , 76–77, 82–83, 90Google Scholar; Lamson, Peggy, The Glorious Failure: Black Congressman Robert Brown Elliott and the Reconstruction in South Carolina (New York: W. W. Norton, 1973), 21–23, 76Google Scholar; Williamson, Joel, After Slavery: The Negro in South Carolina During Reconstruction, 1861–1877 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1975), 233, 330–33, 349.Google Scholar
5 Harlan, Louis, ed., The Booker T. Washington Papers, Vol. 4, 1895–1898 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1975), 236–37. Straker later went on to become one of Detroit's leading black lawyers.Google Scholar
6 Holt, , 229–41.Google Scholar
7 Tindall, , 145Google Scholar; Reynolds, and Faunt, , Biographical Directory of the Senate of South Carolina (entry for Thomas J. Reynolds)Google Scholar; Charleston News and Courier, 14 12 1881Google Scholar; Charleston City Directory, 1886 and 1895.
8 Aiken Tribune, 6 12 1873Google Scholar. I am most grateful to John Hammond Moore for drawing this reference to my attention.
9 Williamson, , 223, 233Google Scholar; Holt, , 299–41.Google Scholar
10 Gordon, Asa H., Sketches of Negro Life and History in South Carolina, (1929; rept. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1971), 94–95.Google Scholar
11 Catalogue of Allen University, 1890 and 1891 (Columbia, 1891), 31–32.Google Scholar
12 Gordon, , 95.Google Scholar
13 Catalogue of Allen University, 1890 and 1891, 40.Google Scholar
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid., 31–32.
16 Charleston News and Courier, 14 05 1887.Google Scholar
17 Catalogue of Allen University, 1911–1912, 59–69.Google Scholar
18 Charleston News and Courier, 2 04 1895.Google Scholar
19 Lamson, , The Glorious Failure, 271, 273.Google Scholar
20 Columbia Daily Register, 24 07 1887.Google Scholar
21 Andrews, W. T. to McKinlay, Whitfield, 9 03, 13 and 27 09 1903, Carter G. Woodson Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
22 Lamson, , 75–76Google Scholar; Tindall, , South Carolina Negroes, 145.Google Scholar
23 Charleston City Directory, 1879–1920.Google Scholar
24 Aiken Tribune, 6 12 1873Google Scholar; Roll, Solicitors', 6 03 1872Google Scholar; Bryant, Lawrence C., Negro Legislators in South Carolina (Orangeburg: South Carolina State College, 1967), 7–12.Google Scholar
25 Quoted, in Aiken Tribune, 26 07 1873.Google Scholar
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27 Aiken Tribune, 6 12 1873.Google Scholar
28 Ibid., 19, 26 June, 3, 10 July, 4 September 1875; 2, 16 October 1876. Clyde was admitted to the bar in November 1873.
29 Aiken Courier Journal, 13 12 1875Google Scholar; Report of the Joint Investigating Committee on Public Frauds (Columbia, 1878), 21, 31Google Scholar; Taylor, Alrutheus Ambush, The Negro in South Carolina During the Reconstruction (Washington, D.C.: Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1924), 278, 284.Google Scholar
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32 In 1882 black lawyers were handling 33 per cent of all cases in the Court of General Sessions. By 1886 this figure had fallen to 28 per cent. Over the same period, however, the number of cases where there was no lawyer involved at all increased from 30 per cent to 63 per cent. These figures are based on an analysis of the Bar Dockets, Court of General Sessions, Charleston County, 1882–93, State Archives, Columbia.
33 Bar Dockets, Court of General Sessions, Charleston County, 1882, 1885.
34 Session Rolls, Court of General Sessions, Charleston County, 1882–1893, State Archives, Columbia.
35 Bar Calendar Number 1 (1881–85), Number 2 (1881–88, 1892–99), Number 3 (1876–85, 1892–1900), Number 4 (1878–82), Court of Common Pleas, Charleston County, State Archives, Columbia.
36 Reports of the Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of South Carolina (hereafter Supreme Court Reports), Vol. 22 (11 1884), 298–301; Vol. 23 (04 1885), 209–12; Vol. 26 (11 1886), 296–300; Vol. 41 (04 1894), 526–31Google Scholar. For Whipper see the Leigh Whipper Papers, 114–1 (folders 45–60), Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University, Washington, D.C.
37 Supreme Court Law Reports, Vols. 14–43 (1880–1894).Google Scholar
38 Supreme Court Law Reports, Vol. 32 (11 1889), 1–5Google Scholar. See also the companion case Ex Parte Whipper, 5–13.Google Scholar
39 All these figures are compiled from the Bar Dockets, Court of General Sessions, 1882–93.
40 Charleston County Court House, Charleston, Register of Mesne Conveyance, B22 169; D20 757; E22 150; F23 30; G19 319; H19 163; J19 21, M20 33, 355; Q20 46, 185, 207; U18 631; Y18 235, 236.
41 Charleston News and Courier, 2 04 1895.Google Scholar
42 Catalogue of Allen University, 1890 and 1891, p. 40Google Scholar; Columbia Daily Register, 24 02 1887Google Scholar; Charleston City Directory, 1895–1913.Google Scholar
43 Roll, Solicitors', 12 05 1897 and 19 12 1900.Google Scholar
44 Charleston City Directory, 1910–1915.Google Scholar
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46 Charleston City Directory, 1895–1912.Google Scholar
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48 Williamson, , After Slavery, 255, 288.Google Scholar
49 Charleston News and Courier, 2 04 1895.Google Scholar
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51 Charleston County Court House, Charleston, Probate Records, 298–0011 (Wright), 397–27 (Lee), 586–0024 (Smith), 784–0014 (Bowen).
52 Andrews, W. T. to McKinlay, Whitfield, 9 03 1903, Carter G. Woodson Papers.Google Scholar
53 Bureau of the Census, Manuscript Census Schedules, Population, 1900, Charleston, South Carolina, Vol. 13, E.D. 110, Sheet 12 and E.D. 113, Sheet 19; Vol. 14, E.D. 114, Sheet 6.
