Allen, Macon Bolling
1816-1894 · Contribution: 1847
Law & Civil Rights
First African American lawyer in the United States (1844); among the earliest Black judicial officeholders (Justice of the Peace, 1847)

Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Quick facts
- Born
- 1816-1894
- Category
- Law & Civil Rights
Impact on the world
Allen broke the color line of the American legal profession, proving a Black man could be admitted to the bar and hold judicial office generations before civil rights law existed.
An alternative history
What Would the World Look Like Without It?
One contribution. Many possible consequences. No single-person origin story.
Imagine this selected contribution absent, not the person or the entire field. The areas below are reflection prompts related to this discipline, not verified chains of direct dependency.
Sources
- Source lookupFind
Massachusetts Historical Society
Exact source links open the cited record. Source lookups help locate legacy references whose original records did not include a direct URL.
3 more sources and references are available to members.
More in Law & Civil Rights
Bedford, Louis A. Jr.
1926-2014
First African American judge in Dallas County, Texas
Bolin, Jane Matilda
1908-2007
First Black woman to become a judge in the United States
Booker, Cory Anthony
1969-
First African American U.S. senator from New Jersey
Bradley, Thomas 'Tom'
1917-1998
First African American mayor of Los Angeles; longest-serving mayor in the city's history