Lutie A. Lytle: An Extraordinary Woman

I am not a radical in anything, nor do I intend to be. I believe in efficacy of reason to bring about the best results.
-Lutie A. Lytle

Meet the first practising African-American female lawyer in the United States, Miss Lutie A. Lytle - a radical and a revolutionary, whether she intended to be or not.

She was born about 1875, the daughter of John and Mollie (Cheesboro) Lytle. The Lytle family moved to Topeka, Kansas when Lutie was seven years old. She attended Topeka High School and after graduation worked as a clerk and as a compositor (in printing office) for an African-American newspaper. Reading the papers at work gave her the idea of going on to study law.

She was the third African-American woman to graduate from law school in the US, and the first in the state of Kansas. When she graduated from Central Tennessee law School in 1897, she was one of only two students in her class.

Lytle was the first woman law instructor in the world when she joined the faculty of her alma mater, Central Tennessee, for the 1898-9 school year. She married lawyer Alfred C. Cohan on January 2, 1901 in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. In 1910 the Cowans, probably the only married practicing lawyers in the US at that time, were living in Brooklyn, New York, though they are reported to have returned to Kansas in later years. They had no children. I was not able to find Lutie A. (Lytle) Cowan in the 1900 census, so have not been able to confirm the statement in the Robinson Library article (link below in Sources) that Lytle was living in New Paltz, New York sometime between 1899 and 1901, and that she was married at that time to an African-American minister.

I will follow this post up, as always, if I am able to find out anything more.

SOURCES

Lutie A. Lytle at Hers Kansas [an excellent, detailed account, though does not cite Willard, which is source of Lytle's 1897 remarks]

Lutie A. Lytle at the Robinson Library [mentions a first marriage to an African-American minister and a move to New Paltz, New York, prior to marrying Cowan, though this seems questionable given the dates - though certainly possible]

John Lytle household, 1880 US Census, Murfreesboro, Rutherford, TN; #674/840, Series T9, Roll 1276, p. 230. [John's MIL Susy Cheesboro is living with the family]

Alfred C. Cowan household, 1910 US Census, Brooklyn Ward 7, Kings, NY; #7/7, Series T624, Roll 957, p. 123. [John R. Lytle, Lutie's father, and her brother and sister Albert and Corine, were also living with them; the address was 16 Downing Street].

Marriage record of Lytle and Cowan here at FamilySearch.

Willard, Frances E. Occupations For Women (Cooper Union, NY: The Success Company, 1897), pp 379-81.