Aaron Albert Mossell II (1863 - February 1, 1951) was the first African-American to graduate from the

University of Pennsylvania Law School The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (also known as Penn Law or Penn Carey Law) is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is among the most selective and oldes ...

Biography

Aaron Albert Mossell I, Eliza Bowers, and five of their children (ca

Aaron Albert Mossell II was born in

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately southwest of ...

in 1863, the youngest of six children. His parents had moved with their first three children from Maryland to

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilto ...

in the 1850s to escape the racial discrimination in the United States. His father Aaron Albert Mossell I (born 1824), the grandson of slaves, became a brickmaker and in Hamilton went to school to learn to read and write. His mother Eliza Bowers was a

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from Baltimore whose family had been deported to

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

when she was a child. She returned later and met Mossell. By 1870 the family had returned to the United States and lived in Lockport,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. While in Lockport, Aaron Mossell I led the effort to desegregate the local school system and, in 2021, a local middle school was named in his honor. Aaron Mossell II graduated from Lincoln University. He earned his law degree at the

in 1888 as the first African American to graduate. Mossell practiced law with two African-American partners in offices in the Witherspoon Building. He was solicitor of the

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...

Memorial Hospital, where his brother Nathan was medical director. He was said to have defended some African-American men after the racial riots of 1917-1919 in Philadelphia. He died on February 1, 1951 in

Cardiff, Wales Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingdo ...

Marriage and family

Mossell married Mary Louisa Tanner in Philadelphia around 1890. They had three children. Aaron Albert Tanner III (1893-1959) became a pharmacist in Philadelphia. Elizabeth Mossell Anderson (1894–1975) became Dean of Women at

Virginia State College Virginia State University (VSU or Virginia State) is a public historically Black land-grant university in Ettrick, Virginia. Founded on , Virginia State developed as the United States's first fully state-supported four-year institution of hig ...

and later at

Wilberforce University Wilberforce University is a private historically black university in Wilberforce, Ohio. Affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), it was the first college to be owned and operated by African Americans. It participates i ...

in Ohio.

Sadie Tanner Mossell Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander (January 2, 1898 – November 1, 1989), was a pioneering Black professional and civil rights activist of the early-to-mid-20th century. In 1921, Mossell Alexander was the first African-American to receive a Ph.D. i ...

(1898–1985), also graduated from Penn and served as an editor of the ''Law Review''., became a practicing lawyer, Assistant City Solicitor and activist on civil rights issues Mossell separated from his wife and family when Sadie was about a year old, and the couple eventually divorced. Later he moved to

, where he was living by the 1930s and remained the rest of his life.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mossell, Aaron Albert 1863 births 1951 deaths American people of Canadian descent Black Canadian lawyers Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) alumni People from Hamilton, Ontario Mossell family University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni African-American lawyers American lawyers 20th-century African-American people