State Bar & Bar Associations
Dec. 13, 2023
A history of discrimination and progress within California's bar associations
In 1950, the membership of the Los Angeles County Bar Association voted to admit all lawyers, regardless of race or color. Some credit may go to the bar's leadership, including Latham & Watkins co-founder Dana Latham, who was elected LACBA president on the same ballot.
John S. Caragozian
Email: caragozian@gmail.com
John is a Los Angeles-based lawyer and sits on the Board of the California Supreme Court Historical Society. He welcomes ideas for future monthly columns on California's legal history at caragozian@gmail.com.
California's lawyers have long led efforts to protect and expand civil rights. While those lawyers deserve praise, we California lawyers must also be aware of our own mixed history of segregation and other discrimination within the profession.
California's 1849 constitution extended voting only to white male citizens. Similarly, upon statehood in 1850, California's first legislature barred persons of color, including "blacks and mulattoes,...
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