Howard University School of Law (Howard Law or HUSL) is the law school of Howard University, a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is one of the oldest law schools in the country and the oldest historically black law school in the United States.
Howard University School of Law confers about 185 Juris Doctor and Master of Law degrees annually to students from the United States and countries in South America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia. The school was accredited by the American Bar Association and the Association of American Law Schools in 1931.
History
Howard University opened its legal department, led by John Mercer Langston, on January 6, 1869. The founders of Howard Law recognized "a great need to train lawyers who would have a strong commitment to helping black Americans secure and protect their newly established rights" during the country's tumultuous Reconstruction era.
The first class consisted of six students who met three evenings a week in the homes and offices of the department's four teachers. Classes were held in various locations throughout the years before the law school settled into its current location at 2900 Van Ness Street N.W. in 1974. At the time, the LL.B program required only two years of study. Ten students were awarded degrees at the first commencement ceremony, which was held on February 3, 1871.
The school was accredited by the American Bar Association and the Association of American Law Schools in 1931.
Women at Howard Law
Howard Law was the first school in the nation to have a non-discriminatory admissions policy. From its founding, it admitted white male and female students along with black students. It was a progressive policy at the time to admit women, but only eight women graduated from Howard Law during the first 30 years of its existence.
An 1890 review of women lawyers in the United States published in The Green Bag, found that many women had difficulty being admitted to law school, or gaining admission to the bar, and practice, even at Howard.
Charlotte E. Ray was admitted to Howard's law program in 1869 and graduated in 1872, becoming its first black female lawyer. It is reported that Ray applied for admission to the bar using initials for her given and middle names, in order to disguise her gender, because she was "[a]ware of the school's reluctant commitment to the principle of sexual equality."
Mary Ann Shadd Cary was among four women enrolled in the law school in 1880. She said in 1890 that she had actually been admitted to Howard's law program in September 1869, prior to Ray. However, Cary claims she was barred from graduating on time because of her gender and did not graduate until 1883.
Eliza A. Chambers, an early white female graduate of Howard's law program, was admitted in 1885 and successfully completed the three-year course of study, earning two diplomas. But, "the Law School faculty refused to hand in [Eliza's] name to the examiners, for admission to practice, omitting her from the list of her male classmates whom they recommended, simply because she was a woman." After that, she succeeded in entering practice.
Ties to the civil rights movement
Howard University School of Law has significant ties to the civil rights movement. Former HUSL Dean Charles Hamilton Houston's work for the NAACP earned him the title of "The Man Who Killed Jim Crow." Thurgood Marshall, a 1933 graduate of Howard Law, successfully argued the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case before the U.S. Supreme Court and in 1967 became the first African-American Supreme Court Justice. In 1950, Howard law graduate Pauli Murray published States' Laws on Race and Color, an examination and critique of state segregation laws throughout the nation. Thurgood Marshall called the book the "bible" of the civil rights movement. In 1952 and again in 1953, two HUSL professors, James Nabrit Jr. and George E. C. Hayes, successfully argued the landmark Supreme Court case Bolling v. Sharpe, a companion case to Brown v. Board of Education.
Academics
Curriculum
First year students at Howard Law are required to take courses on civil procedure; constitutional law; contracts; criminal law; legislation and regulation; legal reasoning, research, and writing; real property; and torts. Students must also take courses on evidence and professional responsibility and fulfill the school's scholarly writing requirement.
The school offered 126 courses beyond the first year curriculum in the 2021-22 academic year.