Cassandra E. Maxwell (later Cassandra Maxwell Birnie) was South Carolina's first African American female lawyer. She was born in Orangeburg, South Carolina. Her grandfather was Henry J. Maxwell and her father John Moreau Maxwell, a successful grocer, and he intended for his children to carry on the family business. Instead, Maxwell attended Spelman College before completing her law degree at the Howard University School of Law in 1938. She passed the bar examination shortly thereafter in 1939, and Maxwell became the first African American female to practice law in South Carolina.