Robert Terrell, the first African-American federal judge

The Grand Old Partisan, November 27, 2007 – Michael Zak wrote,

Grand Old Partisan salutes Robert Terrell, born this day in 1857. He graduated from Harvard College and Howard Law School and then taught at Howard. His wife, Mary Terrell, co-founded the NAACP [Republican suffragists Mary Terrell and Ida Wells co-founded the NAACP].

An activist in the Republican Party, Terrell was an auditor in the Treasury Department during the administration of President Benjamin Harrison (R-IN). President Theodore Roosevelt (R-NY) named him a justice of the peace. In 1910, President William Howard Taft (R-OH) appointed him a municipal judge for the District of Colombia, a position that required Senate confirmation.