Jurist, Social Reformer. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, he received his education in New York City, New York, and graduated from the University of the City of New York in 1848. He returned to Baltimore to study law, and was admitted to the Maryland State Bar Association in 1851. He first became affiliated with the Know Nothing Party, but later subsequently joined the new Republican Party. He practiced law in Baltimore until 1860, when he was appointed Judge of Baltimore's Criminal Court by Governor Thomas H. Hicks. Eventually elected by popular vote to the post, he served in that office until 1867, when he resumed private law practice. During the Civil War he supported the Union cause and President Abraham Lincoln, and was an advocate of military service by freed slaves in the Union Army. In 1864 he spearheaded the formation of a freedmen's bureau called the Baltimore Association for the Moral and Educational Improvement of the Colored People, nicknamed "Timbuctoo." He established schools for African-Americans in every Maryland county, and opened teachers' training schools. He championed African-American causes, and strongly advocated for the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, which permitted black men to vote. His racial views made him highly controversial in his home state of Maryland. In 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him to the United States Circuit Court for the Fourth District, where he achieved national prominence by presiding over the South Carolina Ku Klux Klan trials of 1871 to 1872, convicting and sentencing those defendants who were found guilty. In 1891 he was reassigned to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and was serving as Chief Judge at the time of his death.
Jurist, Social Reformer. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, he received his education in New York City, New York, and graduated from the University of the City of New York in 1848. He returned to Baltimore to study law, and was admitted to the Maryland State Bar Association in 1851. He first became affiliated with the Know Nothing Party, but later subsequently joined the new Republican Party. He practiced law in Baltimore until 1860, when he was appointed Judge of Baltimore's Criminal Court by Governor Thomas H. Hicks. Eventually elected by popular vote to the post, he served in that office until 1867, when he resumed private law practice. During the Civil War he supported the Union cause and President Abraham Lincoln, and was an advocate of military service by freed slaves in the Union Army. In 1864 he spearheaded the formation of a freedmen's bureau called the Baltimore Association for the Moral and Educational Improvement of the Colored People, nicknamed "Timbuctoo." He established schools for African-Americans in every Maryland county, and opened teachers' training schools. He championed African-American causes, and strongly advocated for the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, which permitted black men to vote. His racial views made him highly controversial in his home state of Maryland. In 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him to the United States Circuit Court for the Fourth District, where he achieved national prominence by presiding over the South Carolina Ku Klux Klan trials of 1871 to 1872, convicting and sentencing those defendants who were found guilty. In 1891 he was reassigned to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and was serving as Chief Judge at the time of his death.
Bio by: Rita Janice Traub
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