John Mercer Langston

John Mercer Langston would become a man of many firsts. But before his accomplishments, he was born in Virginia in 1829.

John was born to a mixed-race couple. His father, a white plantation owner, enslaved people. His mother had been enslaved by John’s father. But keeping with a philosophy of educating and freeing those he enslaved, John’s father freed her in the early 1800s. Thus, John was born a free man.

While John only had a few years with his parents, as they both passed away when he was four years old, he spoke kindly of them and their relationship. They never married, as the laws forbade doing so. But they had four children together.

After their passing, John spent his youth living in different homes. He experienced much kindness and warmth, with many life lessons coming from the experience. In one home, before his teen years, he learned the habits of hard work and discipline, which John described as an essential experience that prepared him for life challenges. In that home, the” idea of the highest style of boyhood was realized, when it could be said of one that he was a good worker,” John would say.

After attending Oberlin for college and growing into adulthood, John began thinking of a career. He decided to become a lawyer. But law schools wouldn’t accept him.

“Students would not feel at home with him, and he would not feel at home with them,” one told John.

Feedback from another was, “I will let you edge your way into my school.” To which John replied, “What, Mr. Fowler, do you mean by your words’ Edge your way into the school?'”

The response: “Come into the recitation-room; take your seat off and apart from the class; ask no questions; behave yourself quietly; and if after a time no one says anything against, but all seem well inclined toward you, you may move up nearer the class; and so continue to do till you are taken and considered in due time as in full and regular membership.” John declined.

Instead, John began coursework in theology at Oberlin after taking advice from previous professors who told him that the studies would be good for his soul and help with legal training. Three years later, John graduated as the first black theological graduate in the U.S.

Described in these years as “a rather slim, handsome and elegant young man,” John settled in Oberlin, where he became an important part of the community. He became an accomplished attorney, never afraid of taking on a challenge. In one case, he chose to defend Edmonia Lewis. Edmonia, a Black and Native American woman, who would become a famous sculptor, was accused of poisoning two friends during her college years at Oberlin. She was found not guilty with John’s defense.

Along with his attorney work, John actively participated in city politics. He became the town clerk and later a board of education member. These were the beginnings of political work that continued throughout his life. In later years, John was appointed minister to Haiti. And after, he was elected a congressman representing Virginia.

When he was not working in politics, John also had a career in education. He was President of Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute. And later, he became a law professor at Howard University, Dean of the Law School, and vice president of the university.

John advocated for equal rights in all his work. He challenged norms, creating new opportunities. After a long career, John passed away in 1897.

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Sources:

Prof. John Langston, Howard University. [Between 1868 and 1875] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2017894223/> / Bloomfield, Maxwell. “John Mercer Langston and the Rise of Howard Law School.” Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C., vol. 71/72, 1971, pp. 421–38. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40067784. Accessed 25 Jan. 2023. / “John Mercer Langston.” Negro History Bulletin, vol. 5, no. 4, 1942, pp. 93–93. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44246678. Accessed 26 Feb. 2014. / Blodgett, Geoffrey. “John Mercer Langston and the Case of Edmonia Lewis: Oberlin, 1862.”