166 years after being denied because of his race, Edward Garrison Draper joins the Md. bar

Maryland’s Supreme Court finally righted a historic wrong Thursday, granting posthumous bar admission to the man who might have become Maryland’s first Black lawyer in 1857 if not for the racist attitudes of the era. Edward Garrison Draper is the earliest known individual who was fully qualified to become a lawyer in Maryland but denied admission to the bar because of his race.