Alpha Kappa Alpha’s Charlye O. Farris Was the First Black Woman Licensed to Practice Law in Texas

Did you know that the first African American woman licensed to practice law in the state of Texas was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.? Her name was Charlye O. Farris, and she spent her life breaking barriers in the law.

Charlye Ola Farris was born on June 30, 1929, in Wichita Falls, Texas, the daughter of two educators. A gifted student, she earned her bachelor’s degree from Prairie View A&M College, the historically Black university in Texas, in 1948, when she was still a teenager. She went on to study law, transferring to Howard University School of Law., where she earned her law degree in 1953. She was a soror of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., the first Greek-letter organization established by Black college women, which was founded in 1908 at Howard University.

Farris made history as soon as she returned home. As a resolution of the Texas Senate records, in 1953 she passed the bar and became the first African American woman licensed to practice law in Texas.

Her list of firsts grew quickly. In 1954, Farris was appointed to serve as a special county judge in Wichita County, becoming the first African American to serve as a judge in Texas since Reconstruction. She opened her own law office in Wichita Falls, where she practiced for nearly four decades, becoming a fixture of the local legal community and a mentor to those who followed.

Farris devoted herself to her community as well as her clients. She was active in the NAACP and in civic life, and late in her career she was appointed to the Board of Regents of Midwestern State University, serving from 2006 until her death.

Charlye O. Farris died on February 18, 2010, in Wichita Falls. Her legacy endures in a Texas Historical Commission marker erected in her honor and in the Charlye O. Farris Social Justice Resource Center at Midwestern State University. From Prairie View A&M to the courtrooms of Texas, Alpha Kappa Alpha’s Charlye O. Farris opened doors that had been closed to Black women for the entire history of the state.