REAL PEOPLE. REAL STORIES.

Lutie Lytle

(1875 - ?)

Born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in about 1875, Lutie Lytle was one of four children. Around 1882 the Lytle family relocated to Kansas, along with many other African American "Exodusters."

The Lytle family lived at 1435 Monroe Street in Topeka and Lutie and her brothers attended Topeka schools, including Topeka High School. After her father's unsuccessful run for city jailor on the Populist Party ticket, Lutie was appointed as the party's assistant enrolling clerk for the state legislature. She also worked for one of the African American newspapers in Topeka.

At the age of 21, Lytle moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee. There she taught school to pay for her tuition at Central Tennessee College in Nashville. While in college, she also became involved other social activities. Lytle was one of two students in Central Tennesse Law School's graduating class of 1897, and was among the first African American women to earn a law degree.

In September 1897 Lytle was admitted to the Criminal Court in Memphis, Tennessee, after passing an oral exam. Newspaper accounts said that she was the first African American woman to be licensed to practice in Tennessee, and third in the United States. Later that month, after returning to Topeka, she became the first African American woman admitted to the Kansas bar.

In fall 1898, Lytle announced that she would join the faculty at Central Tennessee. Newspaper accounts claimed that she was the only woman law instructor in the world. She served one session, 1898 - 1899, in that position.

In 1910, Lytle was living in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, Alfred C. Cowan, also a lawyer. Only a few accounts exist of Lutie's life in New York. She had no children and the date of her death is unknown.