Civil War general and Seneca leader Ely Samuel Parker posthumously admitted to New York State Bar

Civil War general and Seneca leader Ely Samuel Parker posthumously admitted to New York State Bar

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Ely Samuel Parker, a Seneca leader and Civil War officer who served in President Ulysses S. Grant’s cabinet, was posthumously admitted Friday to the New York State Bar, an achievement denied him in life because he was Native American.

His admission inside a ceremonial courtroom in Buffalo 130 years after his death followed a yearslong effort by his descendants, who saw bitter irony in the fact that an important figure in U.S. history was never seen as a U.S. citizen, then a requirement to practice law.

“Today ... we correct that injustice,” Melissa Parker Leonard, a great-great-great-grandniece of Parker’s, said to an audience that included robed judges from several New York