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Triumphant the Journey
Celebrating the Stories of Black Alumni
September 16−18, 2016
George L. Ruffin
Class of 1869
Lila Fenwick
Class of 1956
The Firsts
In 1778, Isaac Royall, Jr. bequeathed hundreds of acres of land
in central Massachusetts to the Harvard College for the
endowment of a Professorship of Laws or Medicine. Royall’s
land in Massachusetts was purchased in large part by the
proceeds of the sale of his plantations and slaves on Antigua
when his family moved to Massachusetts in the aftermath of a
slave revolt on Antigua.
The Royall Family
U.S. Constitution – Signed September 17, 1787
The Harvard Law School was founded in 1817, and it is the
oldest continually operating law school in the United States.
The Catalogue of the Officers and Students
of Harvard University, October 1817.
Harvard Law School Founded in 1817
Dane Hall – Home to the Law School from 1832 to 1882
Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1856)
January 1, 1863
December 18, 1865
The Emancipation Proclamation and the
Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
July 9, 1868 − The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
George L. Ruffin, Class of 1869
The First African American to Graduate from the Harvard Law School
February 3, 1870 − The Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
The Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
In 1874, Archibald H. Grimke became the second African American
to graduate from the Harvard Law School.
Archibald H. Grimke − Class of 1874
In 1893, Clement Garnett Morgan became the first African American to
graduate from both Harvard College and the Harvard Law School.
Clement Garnett Morgan − Class of 1893
William H. Lewis graduated from the Harvard Law School
as part of the Class of 1895.
Harvard Law School Class of 1895
William H. Lewis (1895)
Justice Henry Billings Brown
Author of the Majority Opinion
Justice John Marshall Harlan
Author of the Dissenting Opinion
Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896)
In 1911, William H. Lewis, Sr. was appointed Assistant Attorney
General of the United States by President William H. Taft.
William H. Lewis, Sr. (L.L.B. 1895)
Charles Hamilton Houston (L.L.B., S.J.D. 1923)
Langdell Hall − 1931
In 1936, the Royall Family coat of arms was adopted as the seal for
Harvard Law School by Pierre de Chaignon la Rose, an alumnus
and former English professor of Harvard University.
1936 − Royall Family Coat of Arms Adopted
1940 − LDF Founded
In 1946, William T. Coleman graduated No. 1 in his class at
Harvard Law School and became the first black U.S. Supreme Court
law clerk.
William T. Coleman (J.D. 1943(1946))
In 1949, William H. Hastie, Jr. received a recess appointment to the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Third Circuit from President Harry S. Truman. Hastie was
later confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 1950, becoming the first African American
appellate judge.
William H. Hastie, Jr.
1950s
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
“We conclude that in the
field of public education
the doctrine of ’separate
but equal’ has no place.
Separate educational
facilities are inherently
unequal.”
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
Lila Fenwick, Class of 1956
The First African American Woman to Graduate from the Harvard Law School
1960s
1960s
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Voting Rights Act of 1965
1965
2015
Selma
BLSA Founded in 1967
1970s
In 1971, Derrick A. Bell, Jr. became the first
tenured Black Professor of Law at Harvard Law
School.
Professor Derrick Bell
Professor Derrick Bell