News Archive

We're going to send you on a trip to the second floor of Inlow Hall. In the hallway, across from the first entrance to Room 271, you'll find a composite of the class of 1912. At the top left corner of the frame, you'll find Robert L. Bailey. His friends called him R.L. You can learn more about him, and other pioneering black lawyers in Indiana, in this wonderful Indiana Legal Archive post from five years ago. It was written by Ryan Schwier, '16, and Ravay Smith, '15, while they were law students. You should read it. We'll hit a couple of the highlights from Bailey's career here, in celebration of Black History Month and IU McKinney's 125th anniversary.

Bailey was born in Alabama in 1885, and moved to Indiana in search of more opportunities. He was the only black member of the Indianapolis Bar Association, served as a special judge in Marion Circuit Court, ran for State Representative, and was a member of the Legal Aid Society. He was appointed Assistant Attorney General when his friend from law school, James Ogden, took office in 1931. Bailey was a highly skilled lawyer, and you really should go and read the Schwier and Smith piece.