Bar accreditation pushed out part-time law schools and black law schools.

Evidence

Between 1889 and 1909, the number of law schools doubled, and the number of law students quadrupled. The expansion occurred particularly in urban areas, where part-time schools—often with lax admissions standards—flourished by providing opportunities for recent immigrants and other working people to pursue a professional career. During the first third of the twentieth century, however, bar associations and the Association of American Law Schools campaigned to raise admissions standards for law school to upgrade the quality of the legal profession and reduce competition within it. States began to require that candidates for the bar be graduates of an accredited law school. During the Great Depression, many part-time law schools, already struggling to survive, were forced to close because they were unable to meet ABA accreditation standards. Among the casualties were three of the nation’s four black law schools. Portia Law School, founded in 1908 to serve an all-female student body, abandoned its special mission and became the New England School of Law. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 653

Categorization

• XREF: The claim that raising standards aimed to ‘reduce competition’ echoes analysis of professional closure and market control in other course texts. — connects to: Raising accreditation standards closed part-time and minority-serving law schools — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 976; Post-Reconstruction white supremacy nearly eliminated black lawyers from the bar — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 3666; Law-school training and strict bar admission are recent American developments — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 972 (+1 more)
• QUESTION: Three of the four black law schools closed — worth chasing which survived and how accreditation standards affected minority legal access.

Broader Connections

• Raising accreditation standards closed part-time and minority-serving law schools #corroborates (0.97) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 976
• American legal training shifted from apprenticeship and open admission to selective academic schooling. #expands (0.88) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1194
• Post-Reconstruction white supremacy nearly eliminated black lawyers from the bar #qualifies (0.78) — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 3666
• Law-school training and strict bar admission are recent American developments #qualifies (0.75) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 972