In 1868 Hon. John M. Langston, then Dean of the Law School of Howard University, was engaged in lecturing through the South, upon the advantages of said institute to the colored race, and the opportunity afforded to receive a professional education therein. Mr. Straker attended one of such lectures, and was attracted to the University. He gave up his theological studies and returned to his first love, entering Howard University Law School as a law student in 1869, in a class six months advanced. He graduated in 1871, with honor and distinction, and at Commencement delivered an address on "The Necessity for a Common Tribunal Among Nations for the Arbitration of International Disputes." His views then are greatly verified as to the necessity of such a tribunal, by the experiences of the present day. His learning in the law and masterly discussion of the subject secured him the praise and commendation of the scholar and statesman, Hon. Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts. While studying law, he secured a clerkship in the Sixth Auditor's office of the U. S. Treasury, in which post he remained until 1875. In 1871 he was married in Detroit, Mich., to Miss Annie M. Carey, his present wife, with whom he now lives, having had no children born to them. In 1875, he resigned his position in the Treasury Department, and went to South Carolina as Inspector of Customs, at Charleston. In 1876, he resigned said post, and began the practice of his profession in the town of Orangeburg, S. C., and soon was recognized as a capable criminal lawyer by his white brethren at that bar, and the community in general. In the fall season of said year, he was elected to the General Assembly of that State, and took his seat in the famous House, well known as the Hampton-Mackey dual Legislature, by which Governor Chamberlain, the duly elected Governor of the State, was driven from his post. Mr. Straker was not long a member, because of his eviction with others, on account of his politics, he being one of the most prominent Republicans of the State. During this period Mr. Straker suffered much persecution at the hands of his political opponents, the Democrats, in this struggle. He returned to his constituents and was re-elected in 1878. He was again denied his seat. He was again elected in 1880, and again denied his seat, although on both occasions receiving larger majorities than his political opponents. The grounds of objection were that "he was not a citizen," although his naturalization papers were produced and the proof of his citizenship evident and conclusive.