On January 6, 1869, the Howard University Law Department opened with six students, and increased to twenty-two by the close of the session on June 30, 1869. In 1870, Mr. Langston was appointed dean.
Initially, two years were required for the LL.B. degree. Ten of the two- year students graduated on February 3, 1871 – eight of whom were admitted to practice in the District of Columbia on the following day. The school officially extended its requirements for graduation from two years to three years in 1877-1878. The new three year program began in 1900.
During this fledgling period, classes were held three nights a week in the homes and offices of the four instructors. Arrangements were later made for the department to use a room in the Second National Bank at 509 Seventh Street, N.W. Classes were later held in the Lincoln Hall building on Ninth and D Street, N.W., until December 5, 1886, when the building was destroyed by fire. Classes then moved to a room located at Seventh and E Street, N.W. On June 23, 1887, the University purchased a house at 420 Fifth Street, N.W., which served as the site of the law school until it was moved to the main campus in 1936.
In 1931, the School of Law was accredited by the American Bar Association, (ABA), and in the same year the school was granted membership in the Association of American Law Schools, (AALS). Today, Howard School of Law confers an average of 185 Jurist Doctorate and Master of Law degrees annually to students from the United States and countries in South America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. It has a faculty of approximately 50 full-time and adjunct professors. From its humble beginnings, the school has grown in size, structure and stature under the leadership of its deans. Among the more nationally noted are Charles Hamilton Houston, 1930-1935; William Henry Hastie, 1939-1946; James M. Nabrit, 1958-1960; Spotswood Robinson III, 1960-1963; and Wiley A. Branton, Sr., 1978-1983.
In 1872, the law school graduated the first black woman lawyer, Charlotte E. Ray. She is also recognized as the first woman to be admitted to practice law before the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. James C. Napier, another 1872 graduate, was the Registrar of the United States Treasury, 1911-1913, and a member of Howard’s Board of Trustees, 1911-1940. Other graduates who have received merited recognition and distinctions include Thurgood Marshall, the first black United States Supreme Court Justice (LL.B. 1933); Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. former president of the National Urban League, (LL.B. 1960); Damon Keith, Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, (LL.B. 1949); William Bryant, Judge, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, (LL.B 1936); Spotswood W. Robinson III, Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, (LL.B. 1939); Douglas Wilder, former Governor of the State of Virginia; and Sharon Pratt Kelly, former Mayor of the District of Columbia. (Pictures of alumni are on display throughout Houston Hall)