Robert Morris (June 8, 1823 – December 12, 1882) was one of the first

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

attorneys in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, and was called "the first really successful colored lawyer in America."

Biography

Early life

Morris was born on June 8, 1823 in Salem, Massachusetts. At the age of 15, Morris went to work as a household servant for the abolitionist lawyer, Ellis Gray Loring. When Loring's regular copyist, a white youth, neglected his duties, Morris took over for him. Impressed with Morris's intellect, Loring tutored him in the law, and in 1847 presented him for admission to the Massachusetts bar.

Attorney

After his admission to the bar in 1847, Morris may have been the first black male lawyer to file a lawsuit in the U.S. He was also the first black lawyer to win a lawsuit. According to some sources, Morris and Macon Bolling Allen opened America's first black law office in Boston, but the authors of ''Sarah's Long Walk'' say there is "no direct knowledge that llen and Morrisever met", nor is such a partnership mentioned in ''Emancipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer, 1844-1944''.

Abolitionist

''Roberts v. Boston''

Morris was active in black and

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

causes, notably filing and trying the first U.S.

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...

challenge to segregated public schools in the 1848 case of ''

Roberts v. Boston ''Roberts v. Boston'', 59 Mass. (5 Cush.) 198 (1850), was a court case seeking to end racial discrimination in Boston public schools. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in favor of Boston, finding no constitutional basis for the sui ...

''. Morris and

Charles Sumner Charles Sumner (January 6, 1811March 11, 1874) was an American statesman and United States Senator from Massachusetts. As an academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the anti-slavery forces in the state and a leader of th ...

pressed the case, which is believed to be the first legal challenge to the "

separate but equal Separate but equal was a legal doctrine in United States constitutional law, according to which racial segregation did not necessarily violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which nominally guaranteed "equal protec ...

" practice of segregation in America. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled against Morris in 1850. The

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

later cited the case in support of its ''

Plessy v. Ferguson ''Plessy v. Ferguson'', 163 U.S. 537 (1896), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in which the Court ruled that racial segregation laws did not violate the U.S. Constitution as long as the facilities for each race were equal in qualit ...

'' ruling in 1896, which codified the "separate but equal" standard. "Separate but equal" was ultimately overturned by the high court in ''

Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segrega ...

'' in 1954.

Fugitive Slave Act

= Anthony Burns

= Anthony Burns was a fugitive slave who was captured and tried under the

Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 The Fugitive Slave Act or Fugitive Slave Law was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern interests in slavery and Northern Free-Soilers. The Act was one of the most cont ...

in Boston.

Richard Henry Dana Jr. Richard Henry Dana Jr. (August 1, 1815 – January 6, 1882) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts, a descendant of a colonial family, who gained renown as the author of the classic American memoir ''Two Years Before the Mast''. ...

and Morris acted as Burns' attorneys, but were unsuccessful. With the ruling made against Burns, the government effectively held Boston under

martial law Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. Use Marti ...

for the afternoon. The case generated national publicity, large demonstrations, protests and an attack on US Marshals at the courthouse. Federal troops were used to ensure Burns was transported to a ship for return to Virginia after the trial. He was eventually ransomed from slavery, with his freedom purchased by Boston sympathizers. Afterward he was educated at Oberlin College and became a

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...

preacher A preacher is a person who delivers sermons or homilies on religious topics to an assembly of people. Less common are preachers who preach on the street, or those whose message is not necessarily religious, but who preach components such as ...

, moving to

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of th ...

for a position.

= Shadrach Minkins

Shadrach Minkins Shadrach Minkins (c. 1814 – December 13, 1875) was an African-American fugitive slave from Virginia who escaped in 1850 and reached Boston. He also used the pseudonyms Frederick Wilkins and Frederick Jenkins.Collison (1998), p. 1. He is known fo ...

was a fugitive slave from Norfolk, Virginia, who escaped in 1850 to Boston, Massachusetts and worked as a waiter. He was captured and held under the

. Upon his arrest at the restaurant where he worked, Minkins was taken to a hearing at the Boston courthouse. Morris worked with attorneys Samuel E. Sewall, Ellis Gray Loring, and

to defend Minkins. Seeking to have Minkins released from custody, they filed a petition for writ of

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

with the Supreme Judicial Court, which was refused by Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw.''The Ordeal of Shadrach Minkins''.
Massachusetts Historical Society. Retrieved April 23, 2013. Morris collaborated with Edward G. Walker and

Lewis Hayden Lewis Hayden (December 2, 1811 – April 7, 1889) escaped slavery in Kentucky with his family and escaped to Canada. He established a school for African Americans before moving to Boston, Massachusetts to aid in the abolition movement. There h ...

collaborated to obtain Minkins' release.''Edwin Garrison Walker.''
BlackPast.org. Retrieved April 22, 2013. He was rescued by white and black members of the anti-slavery

Boston Vigilance Committee The Boston Vigilance Committee (1841–1861) was an abolitionist organization formed in Boston, Massachusetts, to protect escaped slaves from being kidnapped and returned to slavery in the South. The Committee aided hundreds of escapees, most ...

.''The Ordeal of Shadrach Minkins''.
Massachusetts Historical Society. Retrieved April 23, 2013. After having been hidden in an attic in Beacon Hill, Minkins escaped and fled to Canada. Nine abolitionists were indicted, and charges were dismissed for some individuals. Morris and Lewis Hayden, who had stormed the courtroom to get Minkins, were tried and acquitted.

= Massasoit Guards

= After the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, clothing retailer John P. Coburn founded an African-American militia unit called the

Massasoit Guards The Massasoit Guards were an African-American militia company active in 1850s Boston. Clothing retailer John P. Coburn founded the group to police Beacon Hill and protect residents from slave catchers. Attorney Robert Morris repeatedly petitione ...

to police Beacon Hill and protect residents from

slave catchers In the United States a slave catcher was a person employed to track down and return escaped slaves to their enslavers. The first slave catchers in the Americas were active in European colonies in the West Indies during the sixteenth century. I ...

. Morris repeatedly petitioned the Massachusetts legislature on their behalf, but the Massasoit Guards were never officially recognized or supported by the state. The group was a precursor to the

54th Massachusetts Regiment The 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that saw extensive service in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The unit was the second African-American regiment, following the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry ...

School integration

Morris, Thomas Dalton, and

William Cooper Nell William Cooper Nell (December 16, 1816 – May 25, 1874) was an African-American abolitionist, journalist, publisher, author, and civil servant of Boston, Massachusetts, who worked for the integration of schools and public facilities in the s ...

argued the importance of integration in Boston schools: "It is very hard to retain self-respect if we see ourselves set apart and avoided as a degraded race by others ... Do not say to our children that however well-behaved their very presence is in a public school, is contamination to your children." Lastly, they said that black schools did not provide the same level of education as the multiple forms of white schools, including primary, grammar, Latin and high schools. Boston's African American community worked for educational opportunities as early as 1787, when Prince Hall petitioned for equal access to public schools to the legislature of Massachusetts. His and other attempts to gain access to schools were also denied. The Beacon Hill home of Hall's son,

Primus Hall Primus Hall (February 29, 1756 – March 22, 1842) was born a slave. He was the son of Prince Hall, an abolitionist, Revolutionary War soldier and founder of the Prince Hall Freemasonry. In 1798 he established a school for African American childre ...

, was used as a school starting in 1798. Ten years later the school was moved to the African Meeting House. In the 1820s, the city government provided two primary schools for black children. School conditions and teacher quality was not maintained by the Boston School Committee, and children of color were excluded from Boston's high school and Latin school. The efforts to create a separate but equal school system in Boston failed.

Further career

Morris was commissioned as a magistrate of

Essex County, Massachusetts Essex County is a county in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. At the 2020 census, the total population was 809,829, making it the third-most populous county in the state, and the eightieth-most populous in the countr ...

by the governor, making him the second black lawyer to hold a judicial post. He ran for mayor of Chelsea, Massachusetts in 1866.

Personal life

Morris was married to Catherine Mason Morris, and they had a son, Robert Jr. Though raised a Black Methodist, Morris converted to his wife's religion of

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in the 1850s.

The Morris family eventually began worshipping at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Boston’s South End, which was connected to Boston College. Morris established connections with early Boston College leaders, including Father Robert J. Fulton, S.J. In the summer of 1868, Morris traveled across Europe with his family and reminisced later about their experience riding in trains and staying in hotels without facing racial discrimination. During the trip, Morris, Catharine, and Robert Jr. stayed in Rome and had a personal audience with the Pope at the Vatican.

Legacy

The Morris Library and Boston College

Morris was a book collector, and the extant part of his library is held by the John J. Burns Library (over 80 in number) and the Law Library (2 books) at Boston College. The Morris family had a strong relationship with Boston College in its earliest days. These books went to Boston College either after Morris's death in 1882, his widow Catharine's death in 1895, or both. His law books, mentioned in his will, have not been located. An ongoing reconstruction of Morris's personal library is available on LibraryThing. Over 135 titles have been identified so far, including the extant books at Boston College and other titles listed in one of Morris's account books.Davis, Laurel E
"Robert Morris Legacy Library."
''LibraryThing.''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Robert 1823 births 1882 deaths African-American lawyers People from Salem, Massachusetts African-American abolitionists Abolitionists from Boston Massachusetts lawyers Lawyers from Chelsea, Massachusetts African-American history in Boston 19th-century American lawyers African-American Catholics