BHM2014 - Robert Pinn

Pinn was born free to William and Zilphia Broxton-Pinn, in Stark County, Ohio on March 1, 1843.  His father William Pinn escaped from slavery and fled to Ohio at the age of eighteen.  He worked on farms for several years before marrying Zilphia Broxton, a white resident of Stark County.  Pinn and his nine siblings were born on the family farm in Stark County.  He married Emily J. Manzilla, in 1867, and the couple had one child, a daughter, Gracie Pinn-Brooks.

Pinn attempted to join the Union Army at the beginning of the Civil War but was blocked from enlisting because of his race.  He joined the 19th Ohio Infantry in 1861 as a civilian worker, marched south with the regiment, and despite his non-military status, fought at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee in 1862.  Afterwards he fought in several other engagements although not an enlisted soldier.  President Abraham Lincoln authorized the use of African American troops in combat after issuing the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.  Pinn then joined the 5th United States Colored Troop (USCT), Infantry Regiment (also known as the 127th Ohio Volunteer Infantry) in Massillon, Ohio, on September 5, 1863.

Because of his combat experience, Pinn was promoted to Sergeant on October 18, 1863, just over a month after he joined the regiment.  Pinn received the Medal of Honor for his heroic action at The Battle of New Market Heights near Richmond on September 29, 1864.  He took command of his company after all the officers had been killed or wounded.  President Abraham Lincoln awarded him the Medal of Honor on April 2, 1865.  

Pinn mustered out of service at Carolina City, North Carolina, on September 20, 1865 and returned to Stark County, Ohio.  He studied at Oberlin College from 1874 to 1877.   He then taught school in Cairo, Illinois, and Newberry, South Carolina.  He returned to Ohio and Oberlin where he completed his law studies, and was admitted to the Ohio Bar in 1879, becoming the first black lawyer in Massillon County.

Pinn had a distinguished career as an attorney and a Pensions and Claims Agent for the U.S. Pension Bureau.  He was active in the Republican Party where he served as a delegate to the 1891 Ohio convention that nominated William McKinley for governor.  Pinn was the first African American Commander of Hart Post 134 of the Grand Army of the Republic and remained active in the GAR, until his death on January 1, 1911.

BHM2014 - Macon Bolling Allen

Here is a person near and dear to my heart. For all of you followers who didn't know, I went to law school and, at one time, thought that I would make a living rescuing the injured from jail and an overly oppressive legal system. A legal system where the field will never be level; one that takes advantage of the poor and makes scapegoats of some minorities… so needless to say when I read about Macon Bolling Allen about 25 years ago, I was awe inspired. 

Macon Bolling Allen (born Allen Macon Bolling; August 4, 1816 – June 11, 1894, is believed to be the first black man in the United States who was licensed to practice law and is believed to be the first African American to hold a judicial position. Very little is known about Allen’s early years other than the fact that he was named A. Macon Bolling when he was born a free Negro in Indiana in 1816, the same year Indiana was admitted as the nineteenth state to join the Union. He was a self-taught lawyer who gained his knowledge and legal skills by serving as an apprentice and law clerk to practicing white lawyers in the pre-Civil War era. 

In his late twenties, Allen moved to Portland, Maine, where he changed his name from A. Macon Bolling to Macon Bolling Allen. Allen became a friend of the local anti-slavery leader, General Samuel Fessenden, who established a law firm and took on Allen as an apprentice. 

After passing the Maine bar exam, Allen was granted his license to practice law on July 3, 1844. Finding work in Maine, however, was difficult. There were few blacks there willing and able to hire Allen and most whites were unwilling to have a black man represent them in court. In 1845 Allen moved to Boston, Massachusetts where he met his wife Hannah Allen. They had five sons together, most of whom became teachers. 

Allen had to take the Massachusetts Bar exam in order to practice in the state. He walked fifty miles to the bar exam test site because he could not afford transportation, and passed the exam, on May 5, 1845, despite his fatigue. Shortly afterwards he and Robert Morris, Jr., opened the first black law office in the United States.  Allen soon set his sights even higher; in 1848 he passed another rigorous exam to become Justice of the Peace for Middlesex County, Massachusetts. In addition to his license to practice law he is believed to be the first black man to hold a judiciary position.

Allen moved to Charleston, South Carolina after the Civil War to open a new legal practice. In 1873 he was appointed as a judge in the Inferior Court of Charleston and one year later was elected judge probate for Charleston County, South Carolina. After Reconstruction, Allen moved again, this time to Washington, D.C. where he worked as an attorney for the Land and Improvement Association. He continued to practice law right until his death at age 78.  Macon Bolling Allen was survived by his wife and one son, Arthur Allen.