D. Augustus Straker

David Augustus Straker (1842 – February 14, 1908) was a Barbadian teacher, lawyer, and jurist. He won elections to the South Carolina legislature but was denied his seat on multiple occasions.

Early life and education David Augustus Straker was born in Bridgetown, Barbados in 1842 to John and Margaret Straker. His father died when he was eleven months old and he was raised by his mother. He attended the Dame School until he was eleven, then had a private tutor for two years before entering the Central Public School of the Island led by Robert P. Elliott. He started to learn the tailor's trade, but did not enjoy it and withdrew, instead taking instruction in French and Latin under Rev. Joseph N. Durant and in education by R. R. Rawle at Codrington College. At the age of seventeen he was appointed principal of St. Mary's School and worked as a school teacher at St. Amis' School and St. Giles' School.

In 1866, Rev. Benjamin B. Smith, Episcopal Bishop of the Protestant Church of America, asked Rawle if there were any black people who would agree to emigrate to the United States to teach former slaves, and Straker volunteered. Straker began teaching in Louisville, Kentucky in schools set up by the Episcopal Church and the Freedmen's Bureau. He also began to prepare to become a minister, but did not pursue that career. In 1870, Straker was induced to enroll in Howard University Law School by John M. Langston, and he graduated in June 1871. While a student he worked as stenographer for Freedmen's Bureau head Oliver O. Howard. He also took a position as teacher at Howard in the Normal and Preparatory Department. He held a LL. B. degree from Howard University and a LL. D. from Selma University.

In September 1871 he married Ann Carey, daughter of Thomas and Julia Carey, in Detroit, Michigan. In the 1890s, Straker worked with Robert Pelham Jr. to create branches of the National Afro-American League in Michigan and the pair were active, in part through the league, in supporting blacks in legal trouble.

Straker was one of the 56 prominent Detroit residents invited to contribute a letter to the Detroit Century Box, a time capsule organized by then-mayor William C. Maybury and sealed on December 31, 1900. It was opened on December 31, 2000.