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J. Gray Lucas was born in Texas or Arkansas on March 11, 1864, and obtained his basic education in the Pine Bluff (Jefferson County), Arkansas, schools, where he received a B.A. from Branch Normal College (now University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff) in 1884.
As a law student at Boston University School of Law, J. Gray Lucas was quoted in newspapers as saying that Arkansas was a land of opportunity for Blacks. He graduated from law school with “high honors” in 1887. Lucas was admitted to practice in Arkansas in 1887, after a “rigorous” bar examination in which he earned a perfect score. He was appointed assistant prosecuting attorney in Pine Bluff shortly thereafter. He was reappointed to that position by the next prosecuting attorney.

An active Republican, Lucas served on state, county and federal central committees, including the committee for the 11th Judicial District. He was appointed Commissioner (akin to today’s federal magistrates) for the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Arkansas about 1890.

In 1891, Lucas was elected to the State House of Representatives, where he was instrumental in opposition to the segregationist “Separate Coach” bill. Although one of the youngest legislators at that time, he was selected to make the primary speech against the bill. Despite all efforts, the bill passed. Possibly as a consequence of this defeat for Black Arkansans, Lucas left the state soon thereafter, moving to Chicago.

In Chicago, he practiced criminal defense law and appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court four times. During the 1930s, he left the Republican Party to join the Democrats. In 1934, he was appointed Assistant U.S. Attorney of Cook County (Illinois) by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He also held the positions of assistant corporation counsel of the City of Chicago and assistant recorder of deeds in Cook County, the first African-American to do so. Lucas was married to Olive Gulliver, with whom he had one child, Elaine Louise. He died sometime after 1944.

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