Robert Morris

One of the first African-American attorneys in the U.S., Robert Morris (1823-1882) was active in abolitionist and civil rights causes. In 1848, he filed the first legal challenge to segregated public schools in the case of five-year-old Sarah Roberts, who regularly walked past five White schools to attend the only Black school in Boston, Massachusetts: the crowded and under-resourced Abiel Smith School, which was then housed in the basement of the African Meeting House on Beacon Hill.

The case of Sarah Roberts vs. City of Boston eventually came before the state Supreme Court. While the court ruled against Sarah Roberts, endorsing the principle of “separate but equal” schooling, her father, Benjamin Roberts, her legal team, and community allies pushed for action by the state legislature. In 1855, Massachusetts legally banned segregated schools in the state – the first law of its kind in the nation. Almost 100 years later, in 1954, the “separate but equal” standard was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown vs. Board of Education and segregated schools were made illegal throughout the country.

Morris also used his legal talents in the service of the abolitionist cause. In one celebrated case, he worked to free Shadrach Minkins, who had escaped slavery in the South but was kidnapped by federal marshals in Boston and was due to be transported back to bondage under the 1850 federal Fugitive Slave Act. After a judge refused to release Minkins, Morris and other members of the Boston Vigilance Committee stormed the courthouse and wrestled Minkins from the custody of officials; Minkins later fled to Canada with the help of the Underground Railroad. Morris and several other abolitionists were tried for their role in Minkins’ escape and acquitted.

Photograph above: Courtesy of the Social Law Library, Boston College, Boston, Massachusetts.