The National Negro Bar Association (NNBA) was the first national

bar association A bar association is a professional association of lawyers as generally organized in countries following the Anglo-American types of jurisprudence.

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

lawyers in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

History

The NNBA was founded in

Little Rock, Arkansas Little Rock is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Arkansas, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city's population was 202,591 as of the 2020 census. The six-county Central Arkan ...

in 1912. At the time, and for some thereafter, the

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary association, voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students in the United States; national in scope, it is not specific to any single jurisdiction. Founded in 1878, the ABA's stated acti ...

refused to accept black members, making the NNBA the only national bar association that black lawyers could join. The NNBA's first president was Josiah T. Settle of

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

, who served as president until 1913. Others active in organizing the NNBA included

Scipio Africanus Jones Scipio Africanus Jones (August 3, 1863 – March 2, 1943) was an American educator, lawyer, judge, philanthropist, and Republican politician from the state of Arkansas. He was most known for having guided the appeals of the twelve African-Am ...

. The NNBA was an adjunct to the

National Negro Business League The National Negro Business League (NNBL) was an American organization founded in Boston in 1900 by Booker T. Washington to promote the interests of African-American businesses. The mission and main goal of the National Negro Business League w ...

(NNBL), which had been organized by

Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, and orator. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the primary leader in the African-American community and of the contemporary Black elite#United S ...

. The NNBA was one of several specialized African-American professional organizations that grew out of the NNBL. The NNBA ultimately foundered due to its members' dissatisfaction with the NNBL's tolerance of racism and unwillingness to advocate aggressively for social change. The NNBA met annually from 1909 to 1919. The annual meetings attracted around 50 lawyers each year. The membership was dominated by lawyers from the

American South The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is census regions United States Census Bureau. It is between the Atlantic Ocean and the ...

. The attendance of attorney Lutie Lytle at the NNBA's 1913 meeting made history, as she became the first African-American woman to participate in a national bar association.

Defunct

The NNBA's operations ceased in 1922. The last president of the NNBA was Perry W. Howard, who had also served as the NNBA's first secretary. In 1925, the

National Bar Association The National Bar Association (NBA) was founded in 1925 and is the nation's oldest and largest national network of predominantly African Americans, African-American attorneys and judges. It represents the interests of approximately 67,000 lawyers, ...

(NBA) was formed, taking over the NNBA's previous role as the country's nationwide black bar association. In 1926, NBA president Charles H. Calloway publicly denied any relationship to the old NNBA.

References

Works cited

* * * * *{{Cite book, title=Emancipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer, 1844-1944 , url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0812216857, isbn=0-8122-1685-7 , first=J. Clay Jr., last= Smith , year=1999 1912 establishments in Arkansas 1922 disestablishments in the United States Organizations established in 1912 Organizations disestablished in 1922 American bar associations African-American professional organizations