The first African American to become a lawyer and to argue before a jury, was Macon Bolling Allen. Allen was also known as a businessman but the nature of the business is not known. Allen was born free on August 4, 1816 in Indiana, the same year Indiana was admitted as the 19th state to join the Union. His birthplace is unknown. Very little is known about Allen's early years other than the fact that he was named A. Macon Bolling. As a young adult, he taught himself to read and write and used these self-developed skills to gain employment as a schoolteacher. In the early 1840’s, Allen left Indiana for Portland, Maine, and changed his name from Allen Macon Bolling to Macon Bolling Allen. It is not known why Allen moved to there, but Maine's stance on slavery could have been a deciding factor. Allen was an anti-slavery advocate and Maine's enthusiasm for national reform in the 1830s and 1840s was widely known.
Anti-slavery was a popular cause in Maine. In fact, Harriet Beecher Stowe, then of Brunswick, Maine, wrote the novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1851, which evoked strong anti-slavery feelings and is cited as one of the causes of the Civil War. He connected with General Samuel Fessenden, a local anti-slavery leader, and one of the organizers of the New England Anti-Slavery Society, and took Allen up as a law clerk and apprentice at his firm. Fessenden encouraged Allen to pursue a license to practice law because anyone could be admitted to the Maine Bar association if they were considered to have good character. After working under the general's wing, Fessenden had decided that Allen had gained enough experience and expertise to become a lawyer. After four years of study, observation, and field experience, General Fessenden introduced Allen to the Portland District Court and vouched for him as a worthy candidate for the bar.
The Portland District Court rejected Fessenden’s first motion to admit Allen to the bar in April 1844. They concluded that Allen did not meet the state’s citizenship requirement (being a resident of Massachusetts at the time). Though Maine's law contradicted that ruling. It stated that anyone of "good moral character" should be allowed to be admitted to the state bar. Or was it because he was not considered a citizen because he was Black? After being denied admission to the bar by the court, Allen applied to be admitted by examination. He faced a hostile examination committee, which Fessenden thought did not want Allen admitted. After passing the exam and earning his recommendation, Allen was declared a citizen of Maine with good moral character and given a license to practice law on July 3, 1844 making him the first African American who was licensed to practice law in America.
Allen experienced difficulty finding legal work in Maine, likely because Whites were unwilling to hire a Black attorney and others were not eager to have a Black represent them in a legal matter. The few Black men that lived in Maine were able to hire Allen as their legal counsel. A year after Allen received his Maine license to practice law, he moved to Boston, Massachusetts in search of work. Although the did consider, moving to New York City, with its larger African American population. While in Boston, he met and married his wife Hannah. Very little is known about her except that she was born around 1838 and that her parents were of mixed race and she was a housekeeper. Not much is recorded about Macon and Hannah's private life. They raised five sons: John, Edward, Charles, Arthur, and Macon, Jr. All became schoolteachers, the records are sketchy about Macon B. Allen Jr., the youngest child.
Allen passed the Massachusetts bar exam on May 5th, 1845. Allen gained the attention of William Lloyd Garrison and the Black abolitionists in Boston. Garrison was a journalist and reformer who became famous for his denunciation of slavery. In 1832, Garrison formed the society for the immediate abolition of slavery. Both were used as vehicles to arouse public reaction to slavery. Allen first conducted a jury trial in October 1845 only a few months after being admitted in Massachusetts. It is believed to be the first time a Black 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 suggesting Allen's advocacy influenced the damages awarded. Fellow Black attorney, Robert Morris, Jr. who was admitted to the Massachusetts bar on February 2, 1847, was the first Black lawyer known to win a lawsuit.
Although Allen was able to make a modest income in Boston, racism and discrimination were still present and prevented him from being successful. 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. After becoming licensed to practice law in Boston, Allen caught the attention of abolitionists, such as William Lloyd Garrison. Allen attended an anti-slavery convention in May 1846 in Boston. At the convention, a petition was passed around in opposition to involvement in the Mexican War, which had just started. Northerners believed that the war was a plot to obtain land for the expansion of slavery. However, Allen did not sign the petition, arguing that he was supposed to defend the U.S. Constitution and support the laws of this country. This argument was made public in a letter written by Allen that was published in Garrison's anti-slavery newspaper, "The Liberator". However, Allen ended his letter arguing that he still adamantly opposed enslavement and he asked his friends not to be prejudiced against him, assuring them it had no justification. He sympathized deeply with Blacks in bondage, and he was willing to do all he could for their cause.
In 1847, Allen passed a rigid examination to become a justice of the peace for Middlesex County, Massachusetts, a county not far from Boston. He became the second Black person to hold a judicial position in the U.S. This examination was tough for anyone but for an African American to pass was unheard of in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Because racial prejudice prevented him from obtaining opportunities available to White lawyers, he underwent an examination before a committee. Despite his early frustrations, Allen was eventually recognized for his outstanding legal skills, prompting Gov. George N. Briggs to appoint Allen as Justice of the Peace for Middlesex County on April 21, 1847. A justice of the peace played an important role in the early development of the States. It was (and still is) a judicial office, even though its jurisdiction was limited. As justice of the peace, Allen would have handled minor crimes and small claims, had powers to perform marriage services, acknowledge deeds, issue warrants in some circumstances, and perform other judicial functions. Becoming a justice of the peace was commendable for a Black professional. Allen is believed to be the first African American to hold a judiciary position.
After the Civil War, Allen moved to Charleston, South Carolina, to open a new legal practice alongside partners with two other African American attorneys, William Whipper and Robert Elliott, making them the first Black law firm in the United States. Among other cases, Allen represented several Black defendants who were fighting death sentences. The passing of the Fifteenth Amendment inspired Allen to become involved in politics and he became active in the Republican Party. In 1872, he ran for secretary of state as a Republican, and lost. Sometime in 1873 he received an appointment as Inferior Court Judge in Charleston. Among the contenders for the position was his former law firm partner, William J. Whipper. his election to the Inferior Court of Charleston in 1873 made him one of the first African Americans to serve as a judge on a court of record. But he was preceded on courts of record by two other South Carolina African American judges, Jonathan Jasper Wright (Supreme Court, 1870) and George Lee (Inferior Court of Charleston, 1872).
In 1874, Allen purchased a house on Montaque Street in Charleston and Charleston became his permanent home. A year later, he was elected Judge Probate in Charleston County, South Carolina. Following the Reconstruction period in the South, Allen relocated to Washington, D.C. and worked as a lawyer for the Land and Improvement Association. He held his position with the association until his death on October 10, 1894. The National Bar Association elected to honor him for fifty years of service. The records indicated that his widow and son Arthur survived him. He was memorialized at the Saint Mark's Protestant Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Macon Bolling Allen's legal accomplishments are truly inspiring considering the obstacles he faced.