John Edward Hawkins, King County's first Black lawyer to be locally trained, is admitted to the Bar in 1895.

  • By Helen Lacy
  • Posted 11/06/1998
  • HistoryLink.org Essay 244
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In 1895, John Edward Hawkins is admitted to the King County Bar, becoming the first locally trained African American lawyer. He was from Galesburg, Illinois and worked as a barber while attending school at night.


Sources:

Quintard Taylor, The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle's Central District from 1870 through the Civil Rights Era (Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1994), 31.


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