During the next decade, John
furthered his studies at Oberlin, where he excelled in debate and public speaking and joined the antislavery movement with Charles. Oberlin didn’t just preach abolition, it actively participated in it. Fugitive slaves regu- larly came to the village, and a special school was established for them. Blacks in Oberlin, wrote Langston, “were made welcome as equals in the best families”4
social and educational advantage. By the time Langston graduated
ABOVE: LANGSTON’S HOMECOMING AT THE LOUISA COUNTY, VIRGINIA, COURTHOUSE. BELOW: HIS ADMISSION TO THE OHIO BAR.
from the college at Oberlin, he had been regularly addressing meetings of antislavery societies and state Negro conventions. In 1850, he accompa- nied Frederick Douglass on a lecture tour through central Ohio and east to Pittsburgh. After the passage of the second Fugitive Slave Law5
in
September 1850, which required citi- zens to assist in the capture of fugitive slaves, Langston became more vocal and helped to organize the Young Men’s Anti-Slavery Society of Oberlin.
life’s path as a fighter for freedom and equality took root. Founded as a school whose religion was ending slavery, it nourished the growth of a community devoted to abolition. Langston described his first
morning there, auspiciously a Sunday when the villagers were preparing for church. Te fervor they felt was heightened by their expectation of hearing “the greatest pulpit orator at that time” of whom, wrote Langston, “the wild torrents which sweep the sea… may be as easily described as the… bounding power which moved this irresistible, vanquishing son of
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eloquence.” Langston had never heard such preaching and at the end of the sermon, “he moved away in silence, seemingly afraid to speak.”3 Te preacher Langston described
was Charles Finney, perhaps the greatest evangelist of the Second Great Awakening, a religious revival that lasted about 30 years and whose central message was that salvation could be attained through the practice of good works. He headed Oberlin’s Teology Department, and Langston’s later development as an orator may have owed much to Finney, Langston’s teacher and close friend.
LAWYER, PUBLIC SERVANT, & RADICAL ABOLITIONIST During this period Langston set his sights on a law career. Tere were no African American lawyers in Ohio and only a few nationwide. Langston made several applications to law schools and despite his impres- sive credentials was rejected by all because of his color. Consequently, he decided to continue his studies in theology thinking it would help prepare him for law. Langston earned a master’s degree
in theology and secured a position at the law office of Philemon Bliss in nearby Elyria, where he learned the fundamentals of law and prepared for the bar exam. In the spring of 1855, when he
was elected town clerk of Brownhelm, he became the first African American man elected to public office in America, and that summer he distinguished
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014 DIVERSITY & THE BAR®
and were provided every
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