A Baltimore judge declared that Draper, who should have been the state’s first Black attorney when he applied in 1857, was fully qualified to practice law.
Maryland’s Supreme Court is finally giving Edward Garrison Draper the recognition he deserves by posthumously admitting him to the state bar.
Bloomberg Law reported that Draper, who will receive admission in a special session in Annapolis on Oct. 26, should have been the state’s first Black attorney when he applied in 1857.
At the time, a Baltimore judge declared Draper was fully qualified to practice law in Maryland if only here were “a free white citizen.” The judge instead provided Draper with a “certificate” to help him establish a practice in Liberia, where he and his wife, Jane Rebecca Jordan, relocated in November 1857.
Within a year of his arrival, Draper died of tuberculosis at the age of 24.
Draper’s case went unnoticed as an instance of racial discrimination until Texas attorney John Browning discovered his denied bar application and spearheaded the effort to remedy a historic injustice, getting the attention of the Maryland high court.
“When people think about pioneering early Black lawyers, we tend to think about Thurgood Marshall, but there were pioneers long before that,” Browning said. “The story of Black lawyers in Maryland began with Edward Garrison Draper.”
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