Bad Old Days

In 1857, Edward Garrison Draper was totally qualified to practice law in Maryland. A judge in Baltimore said he was “qualified in all respects.” 

Except one.

I think you see the reason why he was denied admission to the bar. He was then the first known case of someone being denied admission to the Maryland bar because of his race and nothing more.

Last week, the Supreme Court of Maryland took action to correct that error, holding a special session to admit Draper posthumously to practice law in the state. "Better late than never" does not apply when the person in question has long since passed on.

“Maryland was not at the forefront of welcoming Black applicants to the legal profession,” understated former appellate Justice John G. Browning, of Texas. Browning was one the people involved with petitioning for Draper’s admission. “But by granting posthumous bar admission to Edward Garrison Draper, this court places itself and places Maryland in the vanguard of restorative justice and demonstrates conclusively that justice delayed may not be justice denied.”

As if that will do Attorney Draper a blessed bit of good.

This delayed admission will be the state's first, says Justice Shirley M. Watts, of the Maryland Supreme Court. She continued, people “can only imagine” the legal career that Draper may have had, she said, and how history would have been different had he been given a chance to appear in a courtroom. She even posits that “some of the legal battles for civil rights that were fought later could’ve been fought sooner.”

Back in 1857, Judge Z. Collins Lee evaluated Draper's qualifications and certified that he was “most intelligent and well informed in his answers” and would be qualified “if he was a free white Citizen of this State.”

Fun fact: Z. Collins Lee was a cousin of Robert E. Lee, the Confederate General, himself a slave owner.

John Bel Edwards, governor of Louisiana, recently pardoned Homer A. Plessy, who was convicted for refusing to ride in the "colored" train car. Edwards said, “No matter is ever settled until it is settled right.”

It just shouldn't take 166 years to settle things right.