Black Scholar Denied Pa. Law License In 1847 Admitted to State Bar: PITTSBURGH – As a scholar, poet and abolitionist, George B. Vashon broke barriers in the 1800s: he was the first Black to graduate from Oberlin College, the first Black lawyer in New York state and the first Black professor at Howard University.But in his home state of Pennsylvania, where Vashon grew up and studied law, he was twice rejected from practicing law because he was Black.
