List of first minority male lawyers and judges in Massachusetts

Last updated

This is a list of the first minority male lawyer(s) and judge(s) in Massachusetts. It includes the year in which the men were admitted to practice law (in parentheses). Also included are men who achieved other distinctions such becoming the first in their state to graduate from law school or become a political figure.

Contents

Firsts in state history

George Lewis Ruffin: First African American male law graduate (1869) and judge in (1883) Massachusetts George Lewis Ruffin.gif
George Lewis Ruffin: First African American male law graduate (1869) and judge in (1883) Massachusetts

Law school

Lawyers

State judges

Federal judge

Attorney General of Massachusetts

Assistant Attorney General of Massachusetts

Assistant District Attorney

Massachusetts Bar Association

Firsts in local history

See also

Other topics of interest

Related Research Articles

The Boston University School of Law is the law school of Boston University, a private research university in Boston. Established in 1872, it is the third-oldest law school in New England, after Harvard Law School and Yale Law School. Approximately 630 students are enrolled in the full-time J.D. degree program and about 350 in the school's five LLM degree programs. BU Law was one of the first law schools in the country to admit students to study law regardless of race or gender.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suffolk University Law School</span> Law school in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.

Suffolk University Law School is the private, non-sectarian law school of Suffolk University located in downtown Boston, across the street from the Boston Common and the Freedom Trail, two blocks from the Massachusetts State House, and a short walk to the financial district. Suffolk Law was founded in 1906 by Gleason Archer Sr. to provide a legal education for those who traditionally lacked the opportunity to study law because of socio-economic or racial discrimination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel F. Conley</span> American lawyer

Daniel F. Conley is an American attorney and politician who served as the district attorney for Suffolk County, Massachusetts from 2002 to 2018. Appointed to the office in February 2002, Conley was later elected on November 5, 2002, and again in 2006, 2010, and 2014. He retired in 2018 to enter private practice.

Ruth Ida Abrams was the first female justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, where she served from 1978 to 2000, and the first female appellate justice in Massachusetts.

Sabita Singh is an American lawyer and Judge of the Massachusetts Appeals Court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Macon Bolling Allen</span> American lawyer

Macon Bolling Allen was an American attorney who is believed to be the first African American 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 in Maine in 1844 and became a Massachusetts Justice of the Peace in 1847. He moved to South Carolina after the American Civil War to practice law and was elected as a judge in 1873 and again in 1876. Following the Reconstruction Era, he moved to Washington, D.C., where he continued practicing law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles R. Train</span> Union Army officer

Charles Russell Train was an American lawyer and politician who served two terms as a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts from 1859 to 1863.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boston University Police Department</span> Police department for Boston University

The Boston University Police Department (BUPD) is the primary law-enforcement agency of Boston University and provides services to more than 41,000 students, faculty, and staff on 132 acres (0.53 km2) of University property and surrounding streets. Its headquarters are located at 32 Harry Agganis Way adjacent to Nickerson Field, in what was once the Braves Field ticket office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Lewis Ruffin</span> American judge and politician (1834-1886)

George Lewis Ruffin was an American barber, attorney, politician, and judge. In 1869, he graduated from Harvard Law School, the first African American to do so. He was also the first African American elected to the Boston City Council. Ruffin was elected in 1870 to the Massachusetts Legislature. In 1883, he was appointed by the governor Benjamin Franklin Butler as a judge to the Municipal Court, Charlestown district in Boston, making him the first African American judge in the United States. He married 16 year-old Josephine St. Pierre in 1858. Florida Ruffin Ridley was one of their children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denise J. Casper</span> American judge (born 1968)

Denise Jefferson Casper is an American attorney serving as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. She used to be the Deputy District Attorney for the Middlesex District Attorney's Office in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Casper is the first black female judge to serve on the federal bench in Massachusetts. Casper is also notable for presiding over the criminal trial of Whitey Bulger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boston Municipal Court</span> Trial court in Massachusetts, United States

The Boston Municipal Court (BMC), officially the Boston Municipal Court Department of the Trial Court, is a department of the Trial Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. The court hears criminal, civil, mental health, restraining orders, and other types of cases. The court also has an appellate division which reviews questions of law that arise from civil matters filed in the eight divisions of the department.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Massachusetts Superior Court</span> Trial court department in Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Superior Court is a trial court department in Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David A. Lowy</span> American judge (born 1960)

David A. Lowy is an American attorney, academic and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts from 2016 to 2024. In February 2024 Lowy was named general counsel for the University of Massachusetts.

Judith Nelson Dilday is an American lawyer and the first person of color appointed as a judge of the Massachusetts Probate and Family Court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlotte Anne Perretta</span>

Charlotte Anne Perretta was the first woman to sit on the Massachusetts Appeals Court.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Sollors, Werner; Titcomb, Caldwell; Underwood, Thomas A. (March 1993). Blacks at Harvard: A Documentary History of African-American Experience at Harvard and Radcliffe. NYU Press. ISBN   9780814779736.
  2. 1 2 3 Adams, Stacy Hawkins. "George Lewis Ruffin". Richmond Times-Dispatch. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  3. 1 2 3 "George Lewis Ruffin". Massachusetts Hall of Black Achievement. 2011-01-01.
  4. 1 2 Hornby, D. Brock (Spring 2020). "History Lessons: Instructive Legal Episodes From Maine's Early Years — Episode 1: Becoming a Lawyer." Green Bag 2d. 23: 195.
  5. 1 2 "America's first Black Lawyer, Macon B. Allen". African American Registry. Retrieved 2016-10-08.
  6. Jaynes, Gerald D. (2005-02-01). Encyclopedia of African American Society. SAGE Publications. ISBN   978-1-4522-6541-4.
  7. "First Chinese lawyer in Mass. honored at alma mater Suffolk University". sampan.org. Retrieved 2017-09-23.
  8. "Liacos finishes family odyssey from Greece to the high court", The Boston Globe , April 15, 1989.
  9. Shapiro, Marilyn (May 11, 2018). "A Grand Master in tennis and life—Lazar Lowinger" (PDF). Heritage: Florida Jewish News.
  10. "Game, Set, Match | Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly". 2003-12-22. Retrieved 2024-05-31.
  11. "Nuevas raquetas de Babolat: 4 Modelos Nuevos de "Pure Strike"". El Mundo Newspaper. May 14, 2014. Retrieved 2024-06-01.
  12. Sacchetti, Maria (July 26, 2016). "He was a star law student. And an undocumented immigrant. He passed the Mass. bar, anyway. - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2022-10-27.
  13. Marsh, Daniel Lash (1938). The Story of Massachusetts. American historical society, Incorporated.
  14. "Long Road to Justice". www.longroadtojustice.org. Retrieved 2023-12-27.
  15. Périssol, Guillaume (2014). ""The Quality of Mercy is not Strain'd": Ideological and Repressive Modes of Juvenile Justice—A Comparison between Paris and Boston in the Mid-Twentieth Century". Journal of Social History. 48 (2): 289–312. doi:10.1093/jsh/shu082. ISSN   0022-4529. JSTOR   43306015.
  16. "B.U. Bridge: Boston University community's weekly newspaper". www.bu.edu. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  17. Holloran, Peter C. (2017-05-01). Historical Dictionary of New England. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN   978-1-5381-0219-0.
  18. Nuestro. Nuestro Publications. 1980.
  19. "GRABAU'S WILLINGNESS TO TAKE STANDS FINDS HIM IN SPOTLIGHT AGAIN". highbeam.com. The Boston Globe March 30, 1989. Archived from the original on 2015-04-02.
  20. Kuznitz, Alison (2023-12-21). "Martin, In 1984, Was First Black Housing Court Judge". State House News Service. Retrieved 2023-12-27.
  21. Asian-American Lawyers Association of Massachusetts. "AALAM's History". aalam.org.
  22. Columnist, Adrian Walker-. "A judge's plea for justice - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  23. Chuck Colbert, A Judicial Orientation Archived 2011-04-27 at the Wayback Machine , Boston Spirit Magazine (November 18, 2008).
  24. Loren King, Retired Judge Dermot Meagher shares tales from the inner sanctum in his new book, "Judge Sentences.", Provincetown Banner (September 18, 2010).
  25. King, Loren. "Retired Judge Dermot Meagher shares tales from the inner sanctum in his new book, "Judge Sentences."". Wicked Local Provincetown. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  26. admin (2003-11-24). "Elwood S. McKenney". Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. Retrieved 2020-02-17.
  27. "Paul Julian Liacos | Mass.gov". www.mass.gov. Retrieved 2022-05-05.
  28. "Leroy Confirmed As Springfield Judge | Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly". 1994-08-29. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  29. "Roderick Ireland - College of Social Sciences and Humanities". College of Social Sciences and Humanities. Retrieved 2018-01-29.
  30. "Chief Justice Phillip Rapoza | Mass.gov". www.mass.gov. Retrieved 2022-05-05.
  31. "Judge Robert N. Tochka for Massachusetts Superior Court in Massachusetts". Trellis. Retrieved 2022-03-24.
  32. "Albanian-American Bar Association Mission Statement & History". AABA. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  33. "Massachusetts court chief Ralph Gants remembered as a giant of justice, JTA". newengland.adl.org. September 18, 2020. Retrieved 2024-05-16.
  34. Boyajian, David (2015-02-04). "Raffi Yessayan Now a Massachusetts Superior Court Justice". The Armenian Weekly. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  35. Making History:First Indian-American Judge, MA Housing Court, Neil Sherring's Journey, Chai with Manju / INE News & Multimedia , retrieved 2022-04-14
  36. 1 2 "About - Lynch School of Education and Human Development - Boston College". www.bc.edu. Retrieved 2019-06-22.
  37. 1 2 "THE HONORABLE DAVID S. NELSON". Long Road to Justice. Retrieved 2023-12-27.
  38. Raymond, Nate (July 29, 2022). "Biden nominates abortion rights lawyer in U.S. Supreme Court case to federal judgeship". Reuters. Retrieved July 29, 2022.
  39. "Massachusetts Jewish History". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 2024-05-16.
  40. "Ed Brooke won and lost with grace". The Herald News, Fall River, MA. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  41. 1 2 3 4 "A History of Diversity at BU Law | School of Law". www.bu.edu. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  42. Martin, Douglas (2015-01-03). "Edward W. Brooke III, 95, Senate Pioneer, Is Dead". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  43. YARBOROUGH, MARY H. (2013-10-03). "Learning to exhale: New municipal judge drawn to small town's peace, pace". The Times and Democrat. Retrieved 2023-11-30.
  44. "Lawyers Journal-2011-June". www.massbar.org. Retrieved 2019-01-05.
  45. "Mark Mason's Story of Endurance". www.massbar.org. September 2006. Retrieved 2019-01-06.
  46. "Robert Harnais becomes first Hispanic president of Mass. Bar Association". masslive.com. September 2015. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  47. "Obituaries - Charles S. Tsouprake". www.brownalumnimagazine.com. August 2005. Retrieved 2023-12-19.
  48. "ISAAC BORENSTEIN // Juez retirado de la Corte Superior de Massachusetts". El Planeta (in Spanish). 2011-08-09. Retrieved 2022-07-28.
  49. Mendoza, Sylvia (December 2019). "A Voice At The Table". www.hispanicoutlook.com. Retrieved 2022-03-09.
  50. Chotiner, Isaac (2019-03-07). "A Harvard Law School Professor Defends His Decision to Represent Harvey Weinstein". The New Yorker. ISSN   0028-792X . Retrieved 2019-03-08.
  51. Butterfield, Fox (1992-07-31). "Black Republican Is Appointed District Attorney for Boston Area". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-06-28.
  52. "President Biden to Sign Executive Order Creating the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States". The White House. 2021-04-09. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
  53. "DC Law Said African Americans Could Eat Anywhere. The Reality Was Different. | School of Law". www.bu.edu. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  54. Reporter, Bryan Marquard-. "Harry J. Elam Sr., 90, pioneering black jurist in Massachusetts - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
  55. "A career spent fighting for the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals". Boston University. 5 December 2019. Retrieved 2020-06-13.
  56. "SE: David Hall Returns for Landon Lecture, Reflects on K-State's Impact". Kansas State University Athletics. Retrieved 2022-03-15.
  57. Snell, George (16 April 1997). "Space eyed for juvenile court". Telegram & Gazette. p. B2. ProQuest   268637340.