George B. Vashon

George Boyer Vashon 1824 - 1978

Celebrated linguist and legal scholar George Boyer Vashon, at his core, was an activist who dedicated his life to ending the struggle for Black freedom and equality. Vashon’s efforts to reach a society that promoted equality manifested in the abolitionist work he inherited from his father, John B. Vashon.  

Vashon’s father John introduced him to prominent individuals also fighting for the freedom and equality of Black people, including Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, William Lloyd Garrison, and Martin Delaney, to name a few. These family connections shaped Vashon’s worldview and sparked an abolitionist enthusiam at a young age. John Vashon’s sacrifice and leadership are also notable. He financed the anti-slavery crusade in Pittsburgh and established the first school for black students in Pittsburgh. 

In 1844, Vashon became the first Black student to graduate from Oberlin College. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree with valedictorian honors. Vashon returned to his native Pittsburgh years later to study law under Judge Walter Forward. This two-year legal study prompted Vashon to apply for admission to the Allegheny County bar. Vashon was denied admission because he was Black. Troubled by the injustice, Vashon planned to move to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. However, before the move, Vashon traveled to New York to take the state’s bar examination. 

Thanks to his two years of studying under Judge Forward, Vashon passed and became the first Black lawyer in New York. While in Haiti, Vashon taught Latin, Greek, and English. He returned to New York two years later to practice law. During this time, Vashon pinned his famous poem “Vincent Oge,” which highlights the plurality of contributions that shaped the Haitian Revolution.  

In the 1850s, Vashon served as a professor of literature and mathematics at New York Central College. Vashon was just the third Black American to teach at a college or university. Vashon would later teach at Howard University in 1867, becoming the historic school’s first Black professor. Vashon ended his teaching career in Mississippi at Alcorn University. 

More than 150 years after being denied admission to the bar in Allegheny County, because ‘colored people were not citizens,’ Vashon was posthumously admitted to the Pennsylvania bar.