List of first minority male lawyers and judges in Massachusetts explained

This is a list of the first minority male lawyer(s) and judge(s) in Massachusetts. It includes the year in which the men were admitted to practice law (in parentheses). Also included are men who achieved other distinctions such becoming the first in their state to graduate from law school or become a political figure.

Firsts in state history

Law school

• First African American male law graduate: George Lewis Ruffin (1869) in 1869^{[1] [2] [3]}

Lawyers

• First African American male: Macon Bolling Allen (1845)^{[4] [5]}
• First African American male to try and win a lawsuit in Massachusetts: Robert Morris Sr. (1847)^[6]
• First Chinese American male: Harry Dow (1929)^[7]
• First Greek-born male: James Liacos (1952)^[8]
• First Latino American male: Lazar Lowinger (1962)^{[9] [10] [11]}
• First undocumented male: Antonio Massa Viana (c. 2014)^[12]

State judges

• First African American male (justice of the peace): Macon Bolling Allen in 1847
• First African American male (judge): George Lewis Ruffin (1869) in 1883
• First Jewish American male: Abraham K. Cohen in 1912^[13]
• First African American male (juvenile court): G. Bruce Robinson in 1948^{[14] [15]}
• First African American male (superior court): Edward Gourdin in 1958^[16]
• First Syrian Lebanese American male: Elias Shamon during the 1960s^[17]
• First Hispanic American male (Cuban American): Charles A. Grabau (1974) from 1979-1985^{[18] [19]}
• First African American male (Massachusetts Housing Court): John G. Martin in 1984^[20]
• First Asian American male: Richard J. Chin (1974) from 1989-1993^{[21] [22]}
• First openly LGBT male: Dermot Meagher from 1989-2006^{[23] [24] [25]}
• First African American male (Presiding Judge; district court): Elwood S. McKenney^[26]
• First Greek American male (Chief Justice; Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts): Paul J. Liacos in 1989^[27]
• First Haitian American male: Jacques Leroy in 1994^[28]
• First African American male (Justice; Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts): Roderick L. Ireland (1975) in 1997 and 2000 respectively^[29]
• First Portuguese American male (Massachusetts Appeals Court): Phillip Rapoza in 1998^[30]
• First Albanian American male: Robert N. Tochka in 2002^{[31] [32]}
• First Jewish American (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court; Chief Justice): Ralph Gants in 2014^[33]
• First Armenian American male (Massachusetts Superior Court): Raffi Yessayan in 2015^[34]
• First Indian American male (Massachusetts Housing Court): Neil Sherring in 2018

Federal judge

• First African American male (federal judge; United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts): David Sutherland Nelson in 1979^[35]
• First Asian American male (federal judge; United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts): Myong J. Joun in 2023^[36]

• First Jewish American male: George Fingold in 1952^[37]
• First African American male: Edward Brooke (1948) in 1962^{[38] [39]}

Assistant Attorney General of Massachusetts

• First African American male: David Sutherland Nelson in 1971^[40]

Assistant District Attorney

• First African American male: John W. Schenck in 1922^[41]

• First African American male (president): Wayne Budd from 1979-1980^[42]
• First openly LGBT male (president): Mark Mason in 2006^[43]
• First Hispanic American male (president): Robert Harnais in 2015^[44]

Firsts in local history

• Charles S. Tsouprake:^[45] First Greek American male lawyer in New Bedford, Massachusetts [<nowiki/>[[Bristol County, Massachusetts]]]
• Isaac Borenstein:^[46] First Latino American male to serve as a Judge of the Lawrence District Court (1986) [<nowiki/>[[Essex County, Massachusetts]]]
• José Ángel Navarro III:^[47] First Latino male to graduate from Harvard Law School [<nowiki/>[[Middlesex County, Massachusetts]]]
• George Lewis Ruffin (1869): First African American male to graduate from Harvard Law School [Middlesex County, Massachusetts]
• Ronald S. Sullivan, Jr. (1994):^[48] First African American male to serve as a faculty dean at Harvard University [Middlesex County, Massachusetts]
• Ralph C. Martin, Jr.:^[49] First African American male to serve as the District Attorney for Middlesex County, Massachusetts (1992-2002)
• Andrew Manual Crespo:^[50] First Latino American male to serve as the President of the Harvard Law Review [<nowiki/>[[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]], Middlesex County, Massachusetts]
• Takeo Kikuchi (1877):^[51] First Japanese male to graduate from the Boston University School of Law. He would later co-found Chuo University in Tokyo, Japan. [Suffolk County, Massachusetts]
• Emanuel Hewlett (1877):^[52] First African American male to graduate from the Boston University School of Law [Suffolk County, Massachusetts]
• Harry Elam (1951):^[53] First African American male appointed as a Judge of the Boston Municipal Court (1971) [Suffolk County, Massachusetts]
• John Ward:^[54] First openly LGBT male lawyer in Boston, Massachusetts (1977) [<nowiki/>[[Suffolk County, Massachusetts]]]
• David Hall:^[55] First African American male to serve as the Dean of Northeastern University School of Law (1993)
• Luis G. Perez:^[56] First Hispanic American male judge in Worcester County, Massachusetts (1987)

See also

• List of first minority male lawyers and judges in the United States
• Boston Municipal Court

Other topics of interest

• List of first women lawyers and judges in the United States
• List of first women lawyers and judges in Massachusetts

Notes and References

1. Book: Blacks at Harvard: A Documentary History of African-American Experience at Harvard and Radcliffe. Sollors. Werner. Titcomb. Caldwell. Underwood. Thomas A.. March 1993. NYU Press. 9780814779736.
2. News: George Lewis Ruffin. Adams. Stacy Hawkins. Richmond Times-Dispatch. 2018-01-11.
3. 2011-01-01. George Lewis Ruffin. Massachusetts Hall of Black Achievement.
4. Hornby, D. Brock (Spring 2020). "History Lessons: Instructive Legal Episodes From Maine's Early Years — Episode 1: Becoming a Lawyer." Green Bag 2d. 23: 195.
5. Web site: America's first Black Lawyer, Macon B. Allen. African American Registry. 2016-10-08.
6. Book: Jaynes, Gerald D. . Encyclopedia of African American Society . 2005-02-01 . SAGE Publications . 978-1-4522-6541-4 . en.
7. Web site: First Chinese lawyer in Mass. honored at alma mater Suffolk University. sampan.org. 2017-09-23.
8. "Liacos finishes family odyssey from Greece to the high court", The Boston Globe, April 15, 1989.
9. Web site: Shapiro . Marilyn . May 11, 2018 . A Grand Master in tennis and life—Lazar Lowinger . Heritage: Florida Jewish News.
10. Web site: 2003-12-22 . Game, Set, Match Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly . 2024-05-31 . en-US.
11. Web site: May 14, 2014 . Nuevas raquetas de Babolat: 4 Modelos Nuevos de "Pure Strike" . 2024-06-01 . El Mundo Newspaper . en.
12. Web site: Sacchetti . Maria . July 26, 2016 . He was a star law student. And an undocumented immigrant. He passed the Mass. bar, anyway. - The Boston Globe . 2022-10-27 . BostonGlobe.com . en-US.
13. Book: Marsh, Daniel Lash . The Story of Massachusetts . 1938 . American historical society, Incorporated . en.
14. Web site: Long Road to Justice . 2023-12-27 . www.longroadtojustice.org.
15. Périssol . Guillaume . 2014 . "The Quality of Mercy is not Strain'd": Ideological and Repressive Modes of Juvenile Justice—A Comparison between Paris and Boston in the Mid-Twentieth Century . Journal of Social History . 48 . 2 . 289–312 . 10.1093/jsh/shu082 . 43306015 . 0022-4529.
16. Web site: B.U. Bridge: Boston University community's weekly newspaper . 2018-12-18 . www.bu.edu.
17. Book: Holloran, Peter C. . Historical Dictionary of New England . 2017-05-01 . Rowman & Littlefield . 978-1-5381-0219-0 . en.
18. Book: Nuestro. 1980. Nuestro Publications. en.
19. Web site: GRABAU'S WILLINGNESS TO TAKE STANDS FINDS HIM IN SPOTLIGHT AGAIN. https://web.archive.org/web/20150402120042/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-8114195.html. dead. 2015-04-02. highbeam.com. The Boston Globe March 30, 1989.
20. Web site: Kuznitz . Alison . 2023-12-21 . Martin, In 1984, Was First Black Housing Court Judge . 2023-12-27 . State House News Service . en.
21. Web site: AALAM's History. Asian-American Lawyers Association of Massachusetts. aalam.org.
22. Web site: A judge's plea for justice - The Boston Globe. Columnist. Adrian Walker-. BostonGlobe.com. 2018-12-18.
23. Chuck Colbert, A Judicial Orientation, Boston Spirit Magazine (November 18, 2008).
24. Loren King, Retired Judge Dermot Meagher shares tales from the inner sanctum in his new book, "Judge Sentences.", Provincetown Banner (September 18, 2010).
25. Web site: Retired Judge Dermot Meagher shares tales from the inner sanctum in his new book, "Judge Sentences.". King. Loren. Wicked Local Provincetown. en. 2018-12-18.
26. Web site: Elwood S. McKenney. admin. 2003-11-24. Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. en-US. 2020-02-17.
27. Web site: Paul Julian Liacos Mass.gov . 2022-05-05 . www.mass.gov . en.
28. Web site: 1994-08-29 . Leroy Confirmed As Springfield Judge Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly . 2023-12-19 . en-US.
29. News: Roderick Ireland - College of Social Sciences and Humanities. College of Social Sciences and Humanities. 2018-01-29.
30. Web site: Chief Justice Phillip Rapoza Mass.gov . 2022-05-05 . www.mass.gov . en.
31. Web site: Judge Robert N. Tochka for Massachusetts Superior Court in Massachusetts . 2022-03-24 . Trellis . en.
32. Web site: Albanian-American Bar Association Mission Statement & History . 2023-12-20 . AABA . en.
33. Web site: September 18, 2020 . Massachusetts court chief Ralph Gants remembered as a giant of justice, JTA . 2024-05-16 . newengland.adl.org.
34. Web site: Boyajian . David . 2015-02-04 . Raffi Yessayan Now a Massachusetts Superior Court Justice . 2018-12-18 . The Armenian Weekly . en-US.
35. Web site: THE HONORABLE DAVID S. NELSON . 2023-12-27 . Long Road to Justice.
36. Web site: Raymond . Nate . July 29, 2022 . Biden nominates abortion rights lawyer in U.S. Supreme Court case to federal judgeship . July 29, 2022 . Reuters . en.
37. Web site: Massachusetts Jewish History . 2024-05-16 . www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org.
38. Web site: Ed Brooke won and lost with grace. The Herald News, Fall River, MA. en. 2018-12-13.
39. News: Edward W. Brooke III, 95, Senate Pioneer, Is Dead. Martin. Douglas. 2015-01-03. The New York Times. 2018-12-13. en-US. 0362-4331.
40. Web site: About - Lynch School of Education and Human Development - Boston College. www.bc.edu. 2019-06-22.
41. Web site: YARBOROUGH . MARY H. . 2013-10-03 . Learning to exhale: New municipal judge drawn to small town's peace, pace . 2023-11-30 . The Times and Democrat . en.
42. Web site: Lawyers Journal-2011-June. www.massbar.org. 2019-01-05.
43. Web site: Mark Mason's Story of Endurance. September 2006. www.massbar.org. 2019-01-06.
44. Web site: Robert Harnais becomes first Hispanic president of Mass. Bar Association. masslive.com. September 2015 . en-US. 2018-12-18.
45. Web site: August 2005 . Obituaries - Charles S. Tsouprake . 2023-12-19 . www.brownalumnimagazine.com . en.
46. Web site: 2011-08-09 . ISAAC BORENSTEIN // Juez retirado de la Corte Superior de Massachusetts . 2022-07-28 . El Planeta . es.
47. Web site: Mendoza . Sylvia . December 2019 . A Voice At The Table . 2022-03-09 . www.hispanicoutlook.com.
48. News: A Harvard Law School Professor Defends His Decision to Represent Harvey Weinstein. Chotiner. Isaac. The New Yorker. 2019-03-07. 2019-03-08. en. 0028-792X.
49. News: Black Republican Is Appointed District Attorney for Boston Area. Butterfield. Fox. 1992-07-31. The New York Times. 2019-06-28. en-US. 0362-4331.
50. Web site: 2021-04-09. President Biden to Sign Executive Order Creating the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States. 2022-02-20. The White House. en-US.
51. Web site: A History of Diversity at BU Law School of Law. www.bu.edu. 2018-12-13.
52. Web site: DC Law Said African Americans Could Eat Anywhere. The Reality Was Different. School of Law. www.bu.edu. 2018-12-13.
53. Web site: Harry J. Elam Sr., 90, pioneering black jurist in Massachusetts - The Boston Globe. Reporter. Bryan Marquard-. BostonGlobe.com. 2018-12-13.
54. Web site: 5 December 2019 . A career spent fighting for the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals . 2020-06-13 . Boston University . en.
55. Web site: SE: David Hall Returns for Landon Lecture, Reflects on K-State's Impact . 2022-03-15 . Kansas State University Athletics . en.
56. News: . Snell . George . Space eyed for juvenile court . Telegram & Gazette . 16 April 1997 . B2 .