Pioneer Black Lawyers in California

By W. F. Twyman, Jr.

Introduction: I look for the positive in our past. I do so because I derive inspiration from the positive. In their desire to label California as a villainous state, activists are blind to all that is good, and triumphant, in the Golden State. I have never understood the compulsion to view all things Black as negative and forlorn. Where does that mindset come from? It is not me. How I Became Black

This evening as I simmer in the afterglow of California’s apologies for slavery, it occurred to me (things are always occurring to me) that we should view the California past through the past of pioneer black lawyers. Why you might ask? Aren’t Black people poor, marginalized, oppressed and downtrodden? Historically Marginalized Well, that is the problem. We allow manipulators to mold, bend and shape shift our ancestors. The frame for our ancestors becomes laughably negative. Maybe, it is easier to set the stage for reparations for slavery if the positive is erased and forgotten from our nuanced and complex past.

Allow me this evening to do what I do. Welcome to the lives of three pioneer black lawyers in California. These pioneer lawyers were all men of ambition, foresight, intelligent, grit and enterprise. They existed and should be remembered because they lived lives worthy of remembrance.

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Robert Charles O’Hara Benjamin (1855 - 1900)

Born in St. Kitts, West Indies in 1855, the parents of Robert Charles O’Hara Benjamin sent their son for an education to England. Benjamin enrolled in Trinity College, Oxford University. He did not graduate. Instead, he traveled the world before immigrating to New York City where he settled in the fall of 1869. He fell in with newspapermen and would eventually find his calling in journalism. He worked as a business agent for one newspaper and editor for another paper. As a sign of his affinity for America, Benjamin became a naturalized citizen in 1876.

A Republican, Benjamin worked in the Rutherford B. Hayes presidential campaign and was rewarded with the political patronage job of letter carrier for a New York post office.

Ever in search of opportunity, this native of St. Kitts moved to Kentucky where Benjamin worked as a school teacher and began to study law. The law was a suitable platform for his writing and editing skills. He owned and edited a number of papers throughout the country during this period. Benjamin was fearless in his advocacy for black rights. He spoke out during dangerous times against lynchings and racial violence against black people. As a result of his outspokenness, Benjamin had to flee Brinkley, Alabama in 1879.

Benjamin was admitted to the bar in Memphis, Tennessee in 1880 and the bar in Charlottesville, Virginia in the 1880s. Benjamin found his way to Alabama again by 1887. This time, he had to flee again as he would not hold his tongue. History records Benjamin fleeing Birmingham in 1887.

Where did this refuge from southern race violence flee to? California.

He found himself in Los Angeles where he became the first black editor of a white newspaper in our country’s history. In Los Angeles, Benjamin passed the California State Bar in 1887. He was the first pioneer black lawyer in the Golden State. Always in search of more opportunity, Benjamin relocated to San Francisco where he practiced law. “He shared an office in a well-known white law firm.”

It is believed that Benjamin would eventually be admitted to 12 different state bars which is a tremendous feat of mental and intellectual strength. Besides California, these states included Virginia, Tennessee, Rhode Island, and Alabama. In his spare time, Benjamin published 7 books and poetry. What a mind! Young children in California schools should learn about this first pioneer black lawyer, Robert Charles O’Hara Benjamin, and be inspired by his relentless energy and striving.

In 1895, Benjamin became ordained as a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church while practicing law in Rhode Island.

Benjamin was married with family by the time he returned to Lexington, Kentucky in 1897. Kentucky was a Border State during the Civil War. Kentucky was a SLAVE state. To his credit, Benjamin did not shrink away from danger and prejudice. He was a brave man in intolerant times. Benjamin returned to the newspaper business as he edited the Lexington Standard.

On September 19, 1900, the Benjamin family took a family portrait in Lexington. Benjamin’s father-in-law was visiting the family. The visit was captured on film for eternity.

On October 2, 1900, the fearless Robert Charles O’Hara Benjamin escorted black voters to a polling place in Irishtown, a prejudiced and bigoted part of Lexington. A white poll worker, Michael Moynahan, did not take kindly to Benjamin’s advocacy for the black voters. Moynahan beat Benjamin severely with a revolver. The authorities arrested, and released, Moynahan. Moynahan walked to Benjamin’s home and waited. When Benjamin appeared at home, Moynahan murdered Benjamin with six shots in the back.

Benjamin was 45 years old. He was survived by his wife and two young children.

Harrison H. Ferrell

Little is known about Harrison H. Ferrell, the second pioneer black lawyer in California. A college educated man, Ferrell appears as a Sophomore in the Howard College Catalogue for March 1886 to March 1887. Notably, there were only seven students in the Sophomore class, including Ferrell. There were twenty-seven students in the entire college. One imagines things were touch and go for Howard University in these early days after the end of Reconstruction.

Farrell likely graduated in the Howard Class of 1889.

Settling upon the law as a profession, Ferrell entered the Law School where he graduated from Howard Law in the Class of 1891. Ferrell distinguished himself as a law student. The records show Farrell competed for The Johnson & Co.’s prize and received an honorable mention for his submission of a paper “The Borderland of Statutory Law.”

In search of opportunity and viewing California as a frontier, Ferrell became “the second colored lawyer admitted to the court upon oath” as of December 19, 1891. At this point, Ferrell disappears from the California landscape. By August 3, 1897, Ferrell reappears in the historical record again as “Harrison H. Ferrell, Atty” representing the Estate of Jennie Jones, Deceased, in probate proceedings before the Probate Court of Cook County, Illinois.

Charles S. Darden (1879 - 1954)

There is so much to say about Charles S. Darden and so little time.

A native of Wilson, North Carolina, Darden graduated from Howard University and Howard Law School in 1904. The law class of 1904 included 22 graduates, 21 men and 1 woman. Like so many pioneer black lawyers, Darden sought his destiny out West.

On January 16, 1906, Darden passed the California state Bar. He became the third pioneer black lawyer in the state. He immediately captured the attention of others due to his race and skin color. Darden was very dark-skinned. There is a mocking news story published on December 25, 1907 which I will not cite since why bring into the world mockery and ridicule. Suffice it to say two black lawyers were on opposing sides in the court room which humored the press to no end.

Darden became a force for protest and enterprise in Los Angeles. In May 1908, Darden joined other black leaders in protesting William Howard Taft’s recommendation that President Theodore Roosevelt dismiss black soldiers blamed for murder in the Brownsville Affair. Later that year, Darden helped organize the Howard Alumni Banquet held in 1909. He also incorporated the Co-Operative Commercial Investment Company with 10 other individuals of enterprise in Los Angeles.

Darden earned his legal reputation by attacking racially restrictive covenants beginning in the year 1911. His reputation was enhanced by his admission to the U.S. Supreme Court Bar on April 7, 1913.

Even though the 1910s were arguably a racial nadir, Darden did not shy away from challenging race discrimination. He advocated for black officers sidelined unfairly during World War I. He wrote Howard Dean Kelly Miller and the U.S. War Department about the need to do something, anything, to address the discrimination against black applicants for the military.

After the war was over, Darden returned to black enterprise. In 1922, he formed a black investment group to develop a resort with beach access at the base of Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica. In 1940, Darden again reached out to others by forming a partnership with 2 black doctors for the creation of a Los Angeles Negro Professional Men’s Athletic Club.

This pioneer black lawyer who showed grit and determination during the darkest of racial times would pass away in March 1954. Darden did not live to see the Brown decision on May 17, 1954.

And for the curious…Charles S. Darden is not related to Chris Darden.

Conclusion: These three pioneer black lawyers — Robert Charles O’Hara Benjamin, Harrison H. Ferrell, Charles S. Darden — knew only state sponsored and private prejudice and bigotry. And yet the lessons we should take away from their lives are the lessons anyone should take away from the best of the human spirit. Be fearless in the face of those who would quiet you. Always search for opportunity, even if it means moving across the country. And the outside world has no bearing on a man’s sense of inner self.

Good evening!

Robert Charles O’Hara Benjamin (1855 - 1900)