biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1825–66)
|
| biography:
| Teacher, physician, and lawyer, born in Salem, New Jersey, USA. A public school teacher (1844–48), he studied dentistry under Dr Harbert Hubbard and began practising in Philadelphia (1851), where he designed prize-winning false teeth. In 1852 he graduated from the American Medical College and moved his dental practice to Boston. Poor health caused him to study law, and he became a justice of the peace in 1861. Presented as a potential US Supreme Court lawyer by Senator Charles Sumner (1865) before Chief Justice Salmon P Chase, he became the first African-American to be so accredited. Proficient in Greek and Latin, he lectured around the country, refuting the racist theory that Negroes were inferior to whites. |
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