Macon Bolling Allen (born Allen Macon Bolling; August 4, 1816 – October 15, 1894) was an American attorney who is believed to be the first

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

to become a lawyer and to argue before a jury, and the second to hold a judicial position in the United States. Allen passed the

bar exam A bar examination is an examination administered by the bar association of a jurisdiction that a lawyer must pass in order to be admitted to the bar of that jurisdiction. Australia Administering bar exams is the responsibility of the bar associat ...

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

in 1844 and became a

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

Justice of the Peace in 1847. He moved to

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

after the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

to practice law and was elected as a judge in 1873 and again in 1876. Following the

Reconstruction Era The Reconstruction era was a period in History of the United States, US history that followed the American Civil War (1861-65) and was dominated by the legal, social, and political challenges of the Abolitionism in the United States, abol ...

, he moved to

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, where he continued practicing law.

Career

Becoming a lawyer

Born in Indiana as A. Macon Bolling, he moved to New England at some point in the early 1840s and changed his name to Macon Bolling Allen in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

in January 1844. Soon after, Allen moved to

Portland, Maine Portland is the List of municipalities in Maine, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat, seat of Cumberland County, Maine, Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 at the 2020 census. The Portland metropolit ...

and studied law, working as an apprentice to Samuel Fessenden, a local abolitionist and attorney. The Portland District Court rejected Fessenden's first motion to admit Allen to the bar in April 1844, concluding Allen did not meet the state's citizenship requirement (being a resident of Massachusetts at the time).Johnie D. Smith, ''Allen, Macon Bolling'', in Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience (Henry Louis Gates et al. eds., 2d ed. 2005). Allen tried again, pursuing admission by examination, a method that did not require citizenship. He faced a hostile examination committee, which Fessenden thought did not want Allen admitted.Letter from Samuel Fessenden to Samuel E. Sewall (July 5, 1844) (Robie-Sewall family papers, Massachusetts Historical Society), ''as reprinted in'' Daniel Hinchen,
Passing the bar: America’s first African-American Attorney
', Mass. Hist. Soc. (May 7, 2019). Nevertheless, Fessenden said, "his qualifications were not denied." Allen was granted his license to practice law in Maine on July 3, 1844, becoming the nation's first African American lawyer. He experienced difficulty finding legal work in Maine, likely because white people were unwilling to hire a black attorney and few black people lived in Maine. Allen moved back to Boston, Massachusetts, and was admitted to the bar there in May 1845. He conducted a

jury trial A jury trial, or trial by jury, is a legal proceeding in which a jury makes a decision or findings of fact. It is distinguished from a bench trial, in which a judge or panel of judges makes all decisions. Jury trials are increasingly used ...

in October 1845 that is believed to be the first time an African American lawyer argued before a jury in the United States. The case was a contract dispute. Allen's client, the defendant, lost, although the jury awarded lower damages than the plaintiff had requested. Allen encountered difficulties in Boston. Racial prejudice made it difficult for him to earn a living; in 1845, he wrote a letter to John Jay Jr. (the grandson of the country's first Chief Justice) discussing the difficulty of finding clients in Boston and wondering whether he would do better in New York City, with its larger African American population. Four years later, Allen was attacked by four men in Boston, although their motivation is unclear. In 1852, Allen's landlord pressed charges against him for allegedly ripping out parts of his apartment to burn as firewood. A jury acquitted him.

Judgeships in Massachusetts and South Carolina

After passing a rigorous qualifying exam for Justice of the Peace for

Middlesex County, Massachusetts Middlesex County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,632,002, making it the most populous county in both Massachusetts and New England and the 22nd most populou ...

in 1847, Allen became the second African American in the United States to hold a judicial position, following only Wentworth Cheswell (who in 1805 was elected as the Justice of the Peace for Rockingham County, New Hampshire), despite not being considered a full U.S. citizen under the Constitution at the time (although see the remarks about state citizenship in the above section as well as the holdings about Maine in Dred Scott). As Justice of the Peace, Allen would have handled minor crimes and small claims. Allen moved to

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...

, following the Civil War and opened a law office with two other African American attorneys, William Whipper and Robert Elliott. Their firm, Whipper, Elliott, and Allen, is the first known African American law firm in the country. Among other cases, Allen represented several black defendants who were fighting death sentences. The

state legislature A state legislature is a Legislature, legislative branch or body of a State (country subdivision), political subdivision in a Federalism, federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of ...

in 1873 elected Allen (choosing him instead of Whipper) to be a judge of Charleston County Criminal Court. He served for three years. In 1876, he was elected as

probate judge A probate court (sometimes called a surrogate court) is a court that has competence in a jurisdiction to deal with matters of probate and the administration of estates. In some jurisdictions, such courts may be referred to as orphans' courts o ...

for Charleston County, South Carolina, defeating the white incumbent.

Later career

Allen moved to

, at the end of

Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *''Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Union ...

. He continued to practice law and was employed as an attorney in 1873 for a firm called the Land and Improvement Association.

Personal life

Allen and his wife, Emma Levy, had six children while living in the Boston area.Daphne B. Noyes,
Macon Bolling Allen, 1816-1894
', The Church of the Advent, . Two died in childhood. The family spent some of their Massachusetts years in Dedham, where a deed shows property owned by “Emma L. Allen … wife of Macon B. Allen.” After moving to South Carolina, Allen and Emma had another child. Emma died in 1870, along with another of the couple's children. Allen married his second wife, Hannah Weston, at some point before 1880. Allen possibly suffered from

dementia Dementia is a syndrome associated with many neurodegenerative diseases, characterized by a general decline in cognitive abilities that affects a person's ability to perform activities of daily living, everyday activities. This typically invo ...

in his later years, and died in Washington in 1894, age 78.

Chronology

1816 Born in Indiana 1844 Changes his name in Boston to Macon Bolling Allen 1844 Admitted to the bar in Maine on July 3 1845 Admitted to the bar in Massachusetts on May 3 and fell into a low life point looking for work. 1846 Advertises Boston law practice in several editions of The Liberator 1847 Becomes a Justice of the Peace for Middlesex County 1868 Moves to Charleston, South Carolina, where he joins the first known African American law firm 1873 Elected judge of Charleston County Criminal Court 1876 Elected probate judge in Charleston County 1894 Dies in Washington, D.C., on October 10

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Macon Bolling 1816 births 1894 deaths African-American history of Maine Lawyers from Portland, Maine Indiana lawyers 19th-century American lawyers 19th-century African-American lawyers