Celebrating Black History Month provides the opportunity to highlight some of New York Law School’s most distinguished Black alumni. For our final Black History Month post, we honor Marianne Spraggins, NYLS class of 1976, who was the first African American female Managing Director on Wall Street, at Smith Barney. Ms. Spraggins also holds an LL.M. from Harvard Law School. Before beginning her financial career, she was an associate professor of law at NYLS and director of the school’s Urban Legal Studies Fellowship program. Ms. Spraggins was an NYLS trustee in the 1990s and received a distinguished alumna award from NYLS in 1992.
In the early 1990s, Ms. Spraggins was appointed by President Clinton as the director of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation and she also served as a Super Delegate for New York in President Obama’s 2008 presidential election. Past board memberships include the Apollo Theater and Africares, and she has served on the Executive Committee of the Congressional Black Caucus Institute. Additionally, she is also a former member of the Steering Committee of The Wall Street Project, an organization founded by Rev. Jesse Jackson that advocates for minorities in the financial sector. Ms. Spraggins’ father, Roy Travers Spraggins, also graduated from NYLS in 1950.
More information relating to these and many other prominent alumni can be found in the Law School’s Digital Commons.
