Allen, Macon Bolling

Impact on the world

Became the first African American licensed to practice law in the United States when he passed the Maine bar in 1844, and in 1847 became a Justice of the Peace for Middlesex County, Massachusetts — among the earliest African Americans to hold judicial office (Wentworth Cheswill, elected Justice of the Peace in New Hampshire in 1805, is generally credited as the first). Later elected a judge in Charleston, South Carolina during Reconstruction, and co-founded the nation's first known Black law firm, Whipper, Elliott & Allen.

Life & background

Allen passed the Maine bar examination in 1844, becoming the first African American lawyer in United States history, and argued a jury trial in Boston in 1845, believed to be the first by a Black attorney. In 1847 he passed a rigorous qualifying examination to become Justice of the Peace for Middlesex County, Massachusetts, decades before the Civil War and despite not being considered a U.S. citizen at the time. After the war he moved to Charleston, South Carolina, co-founding the first known African American law firm and winning election as a judge of the Inferior Court of Charleston (1873) and probate judge (1874).

Sources

1. Massachusetts Historical Society (Beehive: Passing the Bar); Federal Defender Services Office (fd.org Black History Spotlight)