Sumner H. Lark

The NY Daily News incorrectly naming Sumner H. Lark as the first African American Assistant District Attorney in New York Sumner H. Lark (1874 – June 26, 1931) was an American lawyer who was the second African American to be appointed as an Assistant District Attorney in the state of New York, although press coverage at the time of his appointment in January 1923 would incorrectly call him the first.

Early life Lark was born in 1874 in Hamburg, South Carolina, but was raised in Augusta, Georgia. His father, David Lark Its mission statement was "To do any and all things necessary to be done in order to form a pleasant and harmonious union, understanding and relation with the Democratic Party of Kings County and the State and Nation... to secure justice to the members of the Ethiopian Race and insure tranquility in their homes; to provide for a common and united defense where the interest of the Ethiopian is involved; and to promote the general welfare of the members of the Club and of the Ethiopian Race in general, and to secure the blessings of liberty under that clause of the State and Federal Constitutions which protects life, liberty and property to ourselves and to our posterity." It was the first African-American Democratic club in Brooklyn. He authored a 16 page booklet titled Negro lawyers of New York. He had written in a souvenir program for the Exposition "He who would have liberty, must be vigilant; he who would get his rights, must have a lawyer." On January 1, 1923, Lark was appointed, and he'd earn an annual salary of $4000. In 1927, land was set aside for a new cemetery that would cater to African American families and the Larksburg Cemetery Corporation was formed.

In 2001, Charles J. Hynes, who was the Kings County District Attorney at the time, posthumously promoted Lark to Assistant District Attorney. Brooklyn Law School maintains a scholarship in Lark's name that is given to a minority student that shows great promise.