Sharing why I am a #barexam abolitionist: the history of the bar exam is ugly. In 1875, the first Civil Rights Act passed. White people feared Black people would have more access to civic life, (even tho the Act failed) including becoming attys which at the time just needed 1/8

apprenticeship/training. Enter the bar examination in 1885. The legal profession's version of the voting literacy tests. In 1912 the ABA "accidentally" granted three Black lawyers membership (prob means just didn't know they were Black - records are not clear). ABA convened 2/8

a meeting and to discuss and emphasized keeping the profession "pure". Then in the 1920's/1930's, legal challenges on behalf of Black prospective lawyers who were denied access to white law schools made it to SCOTUS, and "separate but equal" Black law schools like 3/8

North Carolina Central University, Texas Southern University, and Southern University in Louisiana were established as Black law schools. The ABA's response? The accreditation system. Today, bar passage rates are skewed because it takes hella privilege to spend three months 4/8

unemployed and studying full time - which is the most likely indication of passing. In California between 1977 and 1988, 73 percent of white first-time test takers passed on average, compared to 30 percent of their Black peers. The legal profession is 85% white / 4% Black. 5/8

So in my view, and in the view of many others, the bar exam serves as an antiquated hazing ritual. But sure, I'll get back to learning the elemental rules in every field of law (and the California differences!). People smarter than me who have written on this are: 6/8

George B. Shepherd, No African-American Lawyers Allowed: The Inefficient Racism of the ABA’s Accreditation of Law Schools, 53 J. of Legal Education 103 (2003), Dan Subotnik, Does Testing = Race Discrimination? U. Mass. L. Rev. 332 (2013), 7/8

Jerold S. Auerbach, Unequal Justice: Lawyers and Social Change in Modern America (1976). 8/8

@DiplomaPriv4All