Evidences of Progress Among Colored People

by G. F. Richings

COLORED LAWYERS.

In this chapter, I do not attempt to call attention to anything like all of the successful colored lawyers. I simply select from the hundreds of prominent men practising law in courts throughout the United States, two: D. Augustus Straker and T. McCants Stewart.

D. AUGUSTUS STRAKER.

D. Augustus Straker was born in Bridgetown, in the Island of Barbadoes, one of the West Indies, on July 11, in the year 1842.

His early education was fostered by his mother, a pious and industrious woman, who took great pride in her only child, and strove by the labor of her hands to give him a liberal education, his father having died when he was eleven months old.

He received a good English education at the Central High or Preparatory School of the island, under Robert Pierre Elliott, of Battersea, England, and afterwards received supplementary training in philosophy from lectures given by R. R. Rawle, Principal of Codrington College, as well as private instructions in Latin, Greek and French, from Rev. Joseph N. Durant, D. D., of said island. At the early age of seventeen years he became school-master of one of the principal schools of the island.

HON. D. AUGUSTUS STRAKER.

In 1867, he was induced, with two others, by the invitation of Rt. Rev. B. B. Smith, of the Episcopal Diocese of Kentucky, U. S. A., on hearing preached a sermon on the cruelties of slavery and the deplorable ignorance of his race in the United States, upon their emancipation from bondage, to come to the United States and engage in the uplifting of his race, by teaching in the schools of Kentucky, under the auspices of the Avery P. E. Institute and the Freedmen's Bureau, under the superintendence of the Christian soldier, statesman and humanitarian, General O. O. Howard. Before leaving his native land he had commenced the study of law, preparatory to entering the Middle Temple, England. While teaching school in Kentucky he was persuaded to prepare for the ministry in the P. E. Church, but did not enter upon such duties, owing to the prejudice against color and his race, even in said church, an inconsistency which he could not reconcile with Christian practices.

In 1868 Hon. John M. Langston, then Dean of the Law School of Howard University, was engaged in lecturing through the South, upon the advantages of said institute to the colored race, and the opportunity afforded to receive a professional education therein. Mr. Straker attended one of such lectures, and was attracted to the University. He gave up his theological studies and returned to his first love, entering Howard University Law School as a law student in 1869, in a class six months advanced. He graduated in 1871, with honor and distinction, and at Commencement delivered an address on "The Necessity for a Common Tribunal Among Nations for the Arbitration of International Disputes." His views then are greatly verified as to the necessity of such a tribunal, by the experiences of the present day. His learning in the law and masterly discussion of the subject secured him the praise and commendation of the scholar and statesman, Hon. Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts.