Edward Garrison Draper
Class of 1855
First Black College-Educated Lawyer for Liberia
The son of educated free parents of Baltimore, Edward Garrison Draper was educated in private abolitionist-leaning academies before entering Dartmouth with the Class of 1855. The sixth Black student admitted to the College, Draper maintained "a very respectable standing, socially, and in his class." He returned home to pursue legal training. Joseph J. Gilman (DC 1838) supervised his private lessons. At the bar examination, he was judged "qualified in all respects to be admitted to the Bar in Maryland if he was a free white citizen." Knowing beforehand the certainty of the outcome, Draper left as planned for Liberia to become its first college-educated Black lawyer. Unfortunately, he succumbed to illness after a year.
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