November 27, 1857 – Birth of Robert H. Terrell, 2nd African American Justice of the Peace in DC

Robert Terrell was born on this day in Orange, Virginia, although his parents moved to Washington, D.C. in 1865. His father became a personal valet for General Ulysses S. Grant, a connection which helped his son in his education and later career.

Terrell attended the private, preparatory Groton School in Groton, Massachusetts. He was admitted to Harvard University, where he graduated as one of seven Magna Cum Laude scholars in 1884. He then studied law at Howard University School of Law, receiving his LL.B. degree in 1889.

Terrell not only became an educator, a writer and a law professor. He is perhaps even better known as the husband to activist, suffragist and educator Mary Church Terrell, whom he married in October of 1891. Mary was one of the first African-American women to earn a college degree, and became a national activist for civil rights and suffrage.

Robert H. Terrell

In 1901, President Roosevelt appointed Robert Terrell as justice of the peace in D.C., thanks in part to the influence of Booker T. Washington, and then reappointed him in 1906. As Jennifer Davis writing for a Law Library of Congress blog profile points out, Terrell also served as a minister, lectured on African American history, and published a book based on the text of his lectures.

When Congress reorganized the court system in the District of Columbia in 1909, President Taft appointed Terrell to one of the judgeships on the municipal court of the District of Columbia. He continued working as a judge and taught law at Howard until his death in 1925.

Robert’s wife Mary continued her activism after his death, including filing a complaint in D.C. Municipal Court over segregation in the city. The case was taken to the US Supreme Court, and in 1953, she prevailed in District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co., Inc. (346 U.S. 100) in a huge victory for the national Black community. Mary Terrell died a year later.