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KENNETH MACK: The earliest African-American graduates
of Harvard Law School were very much connected to what
was going on in the United States, generally,
which was a transition from slavery to freedom.
It was very difficult for African-Americans
to be even admitted to the bar before the Civil War.
But after the 13th and 14th and 15th Amendments,
African-Americans were quickly admitted
to the bar in most states and began to attend law school.
DAVID WILKINS: So George Lewis Ruffin
was not just the first black graduate of Harvard Law School.
He was the first black person in the United States
to receive a legal education.
There had been other lawyers who had
done what you could do then, what Abe Lincoln did,
in fact, which was read for the bar, which
was to study under the tutelage of a lawyer,
and then maybe take an exam or just
have a period of apprenticeship to qualify you
for membership in the bar.
But no one had gone to law school
until George Lewis Ruffin.
ANNETTE GORDON-REED: The earliest black graduates
of Harvard Law School would have experienced extreme isolation,
being an anomaly in this setting.
It was not proper or considered proper for blacks and whites
to mix during that time period.
KENNETH MACK: Archibald Grimké, 1874
graduate of Harvard Law School.
The Grimké family were children of a South Carolina slave
holder.
Archibald Grimké has two half-sisters,
the Grimké sisters, who were famous abolitionists.
Grimké himself doesn't practice law that much,
but goes on to a very distinguished career,
eventually becoming one of the leaders of the NAACP
and receiving the Spingarn Medal from that institution in 1919.
Clement Morgan was born a slave in Virginia.
He's an 1890 graduate of Harvard College.
And he was classmates with WEB Du Bois, of course.
And he and Du Bois were competitors of sorts.
Both of them competed for an oratory award right
before they graduated.
And Morgan beat out Du Bois.
He went to Harvard Law School, graduating
in 1893, the third African-American graduate
of Harvard Law School, and wound up practicing law locally here
in Boston.
The fourth African-American graduate
is a guy named William H. Lewis, a really remarkable figure.
And under the rules that pertained at that point,
you could play football while attending Harvard Law
School, which he did.
And he was captain of the football team.
And he was an All-American.
You have to remember that back then being at Harvard
and playing football was like being in the National Football
League today.
He was a tough guy, as were all the early African-American
graduates, because they had to be.
They lived in a world that devalued them.
ANNETTE GORDON-REED: The earliest black graduates
of Harvard Law School were blazing a trail.
They were making a way.
And I know this is the way African-Americans think
about these things, the first at various places,
that there will be others, and others
will do even better and better.
DAVID WILKINS: If George Lewis Ruffin arrived here today,
he might have thought that he had landed on Mars.
I'm sure he would be amazed.
And he would be very, very proud.
He would be very proud that people still knew his name
and knew what he had done to lay the foundation
for this incredible legacy that has followed.
But he would also remind us undoubtedly that we still
have much work to be done.
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