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Charlotte E. Ray was born January 13th, 1850 in New York City to Rev. Charles Bennett Ray and Charlotte Augusta Burroughs Ray.
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Charlotte's early life was normal. She spent the early days of her life in NYC. Her father was a Reverend. She was the youngest of seven children. Her family moved to DC in 1850.
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Charlotte went to the Institution for the Education of Colored Youth. It was the only school in DC African American girls could attend.
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Charlotte graduated high school from the Institution for the Education of Colored Youth in 1869.
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The same year Charlotte graduated high school, she got her first job teaching at Howard University. At the time, Howard University was only four years old and a very new institution
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Charlotte found a way into the Howard Law School. The University discouraged women from enrolling at the University's law school. Charlotte applied as "C.E. Ray" to hide her gender and spent the next four years preparing to earn her degree!
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In 1872, Charlotte became the first woman to graduate from Howard Law School and the third American woman of any race to graduate law school.
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The same year Charlotte graduated from Howard Law School, luckily the District of Columbia Bar Association removed the requirement to be a male.
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Charlotte was admitted to the bar, approved, and was legal attorney! She was the first African American woman to become a lawyer in the United States of America!
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Around 1875, Charlotte opened up a commercial law firm in Washington D.C. She attracted customers by advertising on Fredrick Douglas's newspaper. She eventually had to close it down due to racial bias and very few clientele.
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In 1875, Charlotte became an advocate for women's suffrage. According to source, as a woman, she believed it was her duty to fight for women's rights.
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On June 3rd, 1875, Charlotte took a case to the Supreme Court and was the first woman to argue and practice in the District of Columbia's Supreme Court. In this case, she was helping an uneducated woman break free from her marriage and divorce her abusive husband.
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In 1876, Charlotte was declared a delegate in the National Woman's Suffrage Association.
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In 1879, Charlotte moved back to New York and settled for being a teacher at a Brooklyn school.
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Although little is known about Charlotte's life after she returned to New York, she did get married in 1886 to a man named Fraim. According to sources, they had no children.
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In 1895, Charlotte joined the NACW.
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In 1897, it was reported that Charlotte moved to a Long Island, NY suburb called Woodside.
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On January 4th, 1911, Charlotte E. Ray died in her suburban home Woodside, NY. According to sources, she died from a bronchitis infection.
