Cook County Bar Association

The Cook County Bar Association (CCBA), the nation's oldest association of African-American lawyers and judges, was founded in Illinois in 1914. Arkansas attorney Lloyd G. Wheeler, moved to Illinois in 1869 to practice law and he, along with 31 other Black lawyers, began to meet informally to plan protests against discrimination in hotels, theaters, and restaurants, and to address judicial elections and school desegregation. Among the group of Black lawyers was Ida Platt, the first Black woman admitted to practice in the State of Illinois, and the third Black woman lawyer in the nation. This informal collaboration lasted until 1914, when a younger generation of lawyers decided to form the Cook County Bar Association. Edward H. Wright was elected the first CCBA president. On March 5, 1920, the CCBA was formally incorporated by the State of Illinois.

In 1925, CCBA members C. Francis Stradford, Wendell E. Green, and Jesse N. Baker were among the founders of the National Bar Association (NBA).

The CCBA engaged in a variety of legal programs to advance the legal profession and its members and developed an organized system for the fair and impartial evaluations of judicial candidates which led to the joint alliance with other minority bar associations.

The Cook County Bar Association was formed during the "Great Migration". Black people left the farms and rural areas of the American South to join the military forces of World War I, and to respond to the labor demands of a wartime economy. Between 1916 and 1919, more than 50,000 migrants came to Chicago, Illinois. The migration greatly expanded the market for businesses, created demand for housing, and laid the foundation for increased political muscle.

Retail shopkeepers formed the Colored Commercial Club of Chicago to promote common interests of members with the use of joint advertising, mutual account adjusting, cooperative business loans, and legal advice. The Chicago Whip newspaper was founded in 1919 by businessman, William C. Linton, and recent Yale Law School graduates, Joseph D. Bibb and Arthur C. MacNeal. The Whip advocated racial militancy and economic radicalism. Civic leaders and journalists expressed mounting concern about the inadequacy of housing as the migration forced the "black belt" to expand. The housing shortage became a major issue in 1917 as blacks moved in increasing numbers into Kenwood, Hyde Park, Woodlawn, Grand Boulevard, Englewood and areas west, and the white population had limited choices of areas to which they could move, because the war had halted home construction and housing was scarce. Whites responded by attempting to tighten the color bar in housing, schools, and public accommodations. Some whites resorted to terrorism and organized guerilla warfare. White "athletic clubs" assaulted blacks on the streets; neighborhood improvement societies bombed black-owned homes. By 1919, blacks were being assaulted on the streets daily. When blacks fought back, the result were the July 1919 riots. The riots lasted 13 days, left 38 people dead, 537 injured, and 1000 black families without homes.

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