Black lawyer rejected in 1800s honored

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

A lawyer rejected from practicing law in Pennsylvania in the 1800s because he was black was posthumously admitted to the state’s bar Wednesday.

The family of George Vashon accepted a Certificate of Admission during a ceremony before the state Supreme Court.

Chief Justice Ronald Castille noted the “ancient practices” that led to Vashon’s rejection despite having been qualified to practice law in the state.

Vashon was the first black person to graduate from Oberlin College in Ohio, the first black lawyer in New York state and the first black professor at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

He grew up in Pennsylvania and studied law in Pittsburgh but was twice rejected to practice law despite being admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1867.

A Pittsburgh lawyer read about Vashon’s life and decided with the family to petition the court in January to posthumously admit Vashon. The court agreed in a decision announced in May.

Paul Thornell, Vashon’s great-great-grandson, chronicled Vashon’s life in a paper he prepared and had published while a student at the University of Pennsylvania in the 1990s.

Vashon was also a teacher, poet and abolitionist who moved in the same circles as Frederick Douglass, Thornell said.