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Education and Law
Education
- Lemuel Haynes was the first to receive a degree from a U.S. college in 1804. It was an honorary M.A. degree from Middlebury College.
- James Hall was the first to graduate from a U.S. medical college. He graduated from the Medical College of Maine in 1822.
- Alexander Lucius Twilight was the first to graduate from a U.S. college. He received his degree from Middlebury College in 1823.
- Cheyney State Training School was established in 1837. It was the first black college.
- Mary Jane Patterson was the first woman to graduate from a U.S. college. She received her degree from Oberlin College in 1862.
- Lucy Hobbs was the first woman to graduate from a dental school. She received her degree in 1866.
- Robert Tanner Freeman was the first male to graduate from a dental school. He received his degree from Harvard in 1867.
- Patrick Francis Healy was named president of Georgetown University in 1874, the first to head a predominantly white university.
- Edward A. Bouchet was the first to receive a Ph.D. degree. He received it in 1876 from Yale University.
- Henry O. Flipper was the first to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1877.
- The first African-American nursing school opened in 1881 at Spellman College.
- Alain L. Locke became the first Rhodes Scholar in 1907.
- Georgiana Simpson and Sadie M. Alexander were the first women to earn Ph.D. degrees in 1921.
Law
- The first black legal protest took place in 1644 when 11 African-Americans petitioned the New Netherlands Council for freedom. The council granted them their freedom because the had “served the Company 17 or 18 years and had long since been promised freedom.”
- Vermont abolished slavery in 1777.
- Macon B. Allen of Maine became the first lawyer. He established the first law practice with Robert Morris, Jr. in 1845.
- John S. Rock was the first lawyer admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the U.S. in 1865.
- Jonathon Jasper Wright became the first judge in 1870. He was elected to the South Carolina Supreme Court.
- Charlotte E. Ray was the first female lawyer in 1872.
- Blanche Kelso Bruce was the first to serve a full term in the U.S. Senate in 1875. She was the first to preside over the Senate in 1879.
- Thurgood Marshall was the first to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967.
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