Congress first established judicial courts for the District of Columbia in an act of February 27, 1801, but it wasn't until 1871 that the Bar Association of the District of Columbia formed as a voluntary association to support lawyers practicing in those courts.
Membership in that organization was restricted to whites, so non-white lawyers formed the otherwise similar Washington Bar Association.
Circuit recommended the establishment of a unified bar in the District of Columbia, but this required an Act of Congress for which there was insufficient support.
Calls for establishing a mandatory bar, as a means of curbing unethical lawyering, was stalled by conservative opposition in Congress, until the Nixon Administration decided to support a general reorganization of the DC courts, to reduce the power of judges the Administration considered too liberal.
Removing lawyer discipline from the direct purview of the courts and vesting it in a mandatory bar association was a feature of the District of Columbia Court Reform and Criminal Procedure Act of 1970 (84 Stat.