I did! At work.
And then my boss made me take her to lunch at the Café.
YOU GUYS. I WENT TO LUNCH WITH MRS. GARRETT!

I was pretty stoked because HI. I’m 42 years old!
What child of the 80’s didn’t watch Different Strokes/Facts of Life?
(They came on back to back, back in the day)
(when I was young I’m not a kid anymore, but sometimes, I sit and wish I was a kid again)
(dammit with the songs. I can’t turn it off)
I got to ask her questions, and be all low-key fangirly.
I’m NEVER fangirly, guys. I told Al Pacino I’d spank him.
BUT. I was fangirly.
She was really nice (read: TOLERANT)
She also paid for lunch.
And later, she brought me (and another co-worker) a really sweet mug as a thank you gift that I still eat ice cream out of today.

ANYWAYS. IT WAS AWESOME.
Also. Did you know that Charlotte Ray was the first African-American female lawyer in the United States?
She graduated from Howard University School of Law in 1872. (Let’s hear it for HBCUs, y’all!)
AND. She was also the first female admitted to the District of Columbia Bar, and the first woman admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia.
AND! Her admission was used as a precedent by women in other states who sought admission to the bar.

Ray opened her own law office and ran advertisements in a newspaper run by Frederick Douglass.
Charlotte Ray was said to be eloquent, authoritative, and “one of the best lawyers on corporations in the country”.
HOWEVER, She only practiced for a few years because prejudice against African Americans and women made her business unsustainable.
Ray eventually moved to New York, where she became a teacher in Brooklyn.

In March 2006, The Northeastern University School of Law (Boston, MA) chapter of Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity International chose to honor Ray by naming their newly chartered chapter after her, in recognition of her place as the first female African-American attorney.

WHAT. You say these aren’t the same people? Is this one of those cases Jack Johnson vs. Jack Johnson?
Yes it is!
Sometimes y’all get facts on random connections like the same name. Because I DO WHAT I WANT.
Even though I’ll be honest and tell y’all that I feel like I’m getting a cold
which means that I took cold medicine and NOW I have medicine head and when I looked up this fact I was like
GODDAMN SHE’S OLDER THAN I THOUGHT SHE WAS.
AND ALSO SHE’S BLACK? WHUT?

And then I was like, OH. Maybe I should notice these names are spelled differently.
And that I probably woulda been HIGH KEY FANGIRLING if I had met the woman who made it possible for the FLOTUS to be a lawyer.
And I probably wouldn’t have asked her about Tootie.

ANYWAYS.

This wraps up this year’s Black People Doing Important Shit Even When White People May Not Want Them To History Month. Also known as February.
Sorry y’all didn’t get your I hate Disney Post. Don’t worry. I’m sure they’ll make more movies with black people as animals soon.
And I didn’t get to other stuff I WANTED to send y’all. (Yes, Miss…I know I owe you one. I got you)

BUT DON’T WORRY GUYS.
February happens EVERY YEAR.
Along with the keeping you on your toes e-mails.

And just remember! If you ever get tired of my bullshit with some facts of life thrown in, THE INTERNET IS NOT JUST FOR PORN, it’s for HISTORY. The black kind.

See you next time!