page_title: Samuel Laing Williams
hierarchical_section_title: Samuel Laing Williams
caption_attribution_description: English: Photographic portrait of S. Laing Williams, an African American lawyer in Chicago, 1903.
context_page_description: Samuel Laing Williams was the first African American to graduate from the Law School of the George Washington University, then called Columbian University, in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1821 as Columbian College, Columbian University briefly admitted African Americans to its law program some time between 1865 and about 1890. Williams may have been the first African American admitted to any GW program when he applied in 1882; he experienced discrimination from his white peers but was said to have eventually won their respect, along with that of the faculty, who awarded him a top law thesis prize. He earned his LL.B. from Columbian University in 1884 while also working at the United States Pension office. He was admitted to the District of Columbia Bar on June 18, 1885, then went on to earn his LL.M. from Columbian University's graduate law program in 1885.
  Out of a student body of just over 180 law students, only three other African Americans are known to have attended Columbian University Law School during this time: Robert Bruce Bagby from Indiana, Theodore H. Greene from Mississippi, and George Langhorne Pryor from Virginia, who were all enrolled as seniors in 1886.
context_section_description: Samuel Laing Williams (January 10, 1857 – December 21, 1921) was the first African American to graduate from the Law School of the George Washington University, then called Columbian University, in Washington, D.C.  Founded in 1821 as Columbian College, Columbian University briefly admitted African Americans to its law program some time between 1865 and about 1890. Williams may have been the first African American admitted to any GW program when he applied in 1882; he experienced discrimination from his white peers but was said to have eventually won their respect, along with that of the faculty, who awarded him a top law thesis prize. He earned his LL.B. from Columbian University in 1884 while also working at the United States Pension office. He was admitted to the District of Columbia Bar on June 18, 1885, then went on to earn his LL.M. from Columbian University's graduate law program in 1885.
  Out of a student body of just over 180 law students, only three other African Americans are known to have attended Columbian University Law School during this time: Robert Bruce Bagby from Indiana, Theodore H. Greene from Mississippi, and George Langhorne Pryor from Virginia, who were all enrolled as seniors in 1886. At least one other African American, William Henry Harrison Hart, is known to have been rejected admission in 1885. This window of admissions of African Americans soon closed, and George Washington University did not drop its racial exclusion policies until 1954, after George Washington University Law School merged with National University Law School, which had already desegregated.
caption: Photograph portrait of Samuel Laing Williams, 1903.
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