[4] Ray opened her own law office in Washington, D.C., advertising in a newspaper run by Frederick Douglass.

[9][10] Reverend Ray was an important figure in the abolitionist movement and edited a newspaper called The Colored American.

Charlotte attended a school called the Institution for the Education of Colored Youth (now known as University of the District of Columbia) in Washington, D.C., graduating in 1869.

[15] According to others, her use of initials is not proven, and it would not have been needed, because Howard University at this time had a clearly articulated policy of acceptance of both Black men and women.

[18] Ray began her independent practice of commercial law in 1872, advertising in newspapers such as the New National Era and Citizen, owned by Frederick Douglass.

[4][5] Some sources suggest that she hoped to specialize in real estate law, which would involve fewer appearances in court.

The arguments were based on the grounds of "habitual drunkenness" and "cruelty of treatment, endangering the life or health of the party complaining".

Ray's petition vividly evokes the violence of the marriage, describing an incident in which the husband first broke the bedstead, so that the wife lay down on the floor, and then "went down stairs, got an ax and returning, ripped up the planks in the floor", with the intention of causing his wife to fall through and break her neck.

"[4][20][21] Yet despite her Howard connections and advertisements, she was unable to maintain a steady client flow, sufficient to support herself.

[11][23][24] In March 2006, the Northeastern University School of Law (Boston, MA) chapter of Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity International chose to honor Ray by naming their newly chartered chapter after her, in recognition of her place as the first female African-American attorney.