1872Charlotte E. Ray became the first black female lawyer in the U.S. Ray graduated from Howard University School of Law and was the first female admitted to the District of Columbia Bar. Ray opened her own law office and ran advertisements in a newspaper run by Frederick Douglass. Due to prejudice, she could not sustain her practice and, a few years later, became a teacher in Brooklyn.1908President Theodore Roosevelt signed an act creating the U.S. Army Reserve.