Black History February 2: In 1866 the Supreme Court allowed the first black lawyer to argue a case before them

On this day, Feb 2, 1866, the United States Supreme Court allowed a black lawyer to argue a case before them for the very first time.

Samuel R. Lowery was born in Nashville, Tennessee to Peter and Ruth Lowery in December of 1832.  His mother died when he was only seven years old,  leaving Samuel to be raised by his father.

Samuel’s father, Peter, had been born a slave, but purchased his own freedom.  As a Freedman, he ran a business, worked as a farmer, operated a livery stable, and served as a janitor at Franklin College.  The Reverend Talbot Fanning, white proprietor of Franklin College, would become tutor to both Peter and Samuel.

In 1848, Samuel himself became a Christian Church minister. However, after a local race riot in December 1856 endangered the lives of many free black families, Samuel moved his family North.  He continued working as a pastor in Cincinnati, Ohio and organizing Christian Churches in Canada until the mid 1860’s, when Union forces occupied Nashville and Samuel returned from exile.

Between 1865 and 1875, Lowery was involved with the State Colored Men’s Conventions, the National Emigration Society, and the Tennessee State Equal Rights League. He studied law under a white attorney in Rutherford County and began a law practice.  On February 2, 1880, Lowery was admitted to the bar of the U. S. Supreme Court, a first for Blacks in America.

In the 1880s, he established a cooperative community, Loweryvale, in Jefferson County, Alabama, where he died around 1900.

As an interesting addition to this edition…

Source: blackhistorywall.wordpress.com