Silas Robbins
{{short description|American lawyer}}
{{for|the Kentucky justice|Silas Webster Robbins}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Silas Robbins
|image = File:Silas Robbins - Progress - Saturday, June 21, 1890.png
|caption = Phototype from the Progress, June 21, 1890
|birth_date = February 14, 1857
|birth_place =
|death_date = September 11, 1916
|death_place = Omaha, Nebraska, US
|other_names =
|known_for =
|occupation = Lawyer
|nationality = American
}}
Silas Robbins (February 14, 1857 – September 11, 1916){{cite web |url=http://nebraskagravestones.org/view.php?id=58583 |website=Nebraska Gravestones |title=Silas Robbins |date=16 February 2013}} was the first African American admitted to practice law in the U.S. state of Nebraska in 1889, and the first black person in Omaha, Nebraska to be admitted to the Nebraska State Bar Association.{{cite web |url=http://www.neded.org/files/research/stathand/parttwo/nehist5y.html |title=Nebraska's History |publisher=Nebraska Department of Economic Development |access-date=19 August 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719040735/http://www.neded.org/files/research/stathand/parttwo/nehist5y.html |archive-date=19 July 2011 |url-status=dead}}
Biography
Prior to serving in Nebraska, Robbins was admitted to the bar in Indiana and Mississippi.{{cite news |title=Nebraska lawyer commits suicide |work=New York News |date=September 21, 1916}}
In 1887 Robbins became the second African American to run for Nebraska State Legislature, winning the endorsement of Gilbert Hitchcock's Omaha World-Herald. After losing the race, Robbins continued to serve in Omaha.
In 1889 Robbins became the first black lawyer admitted to practice in Nebraska, sixteen years after the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that blacks could not be excluded from serving on juries. In 1893 he secured a patent from the United States Patent Office for a game he created called "politics".(1893) [http://www.google.com/patents?id=oNQ_AAAAEBAJ&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq=%22Silas+Robbins%22+omaha&source=web&ots=g7dGeewddR&sig=8yJKED7fwzFpyaZCPe2DD9QYKQY&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result#PPA1,M1 "Game apparatus"]{{dead link|date=June 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, United States Patent Office. Retrieved 8/19/08.
When the Populist Party took power in Omaha, Robbins served as the tax commissioner from 1900 to 1901 and again from 1903 to 1905. Afterward he focused primarily on real estate law, and maintained a reputation as one of Omaha's "best known colored attorneys."{{cite book |last=Smith |first=J.C. |year=1993 |title=Emancipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer, 1844-1944 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |p=464}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.memoriallibrary.com/NE/Ethnic/Negro/professions.htm|title=THE NEGROES OF NEBRASKA - Negroes In The Professions|last=Nebraska Writers' Project, Work Projects Administration|date=1940|website=Livingston County Michigan Historical & Genealogical Project|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615074924/http://www.memoriallibrary.com/NE/Ethnic/Negro/professions.htm|archive-date=2011-06-15|url-status=bot: unknown|access-date=2018-03-28}}
Robbins committed suicide on September 11, 1916, by a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the temple,{{cite news |url=http://www.omahahistory.org/newspaper_website/Monitor%201916/Monitor_Sep_16.pdf |title=Well Known Attorney Commits Suicide|work=The Monitor |location=Omaha, Nebraska |date=September 16, 1916 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151220161528/http://www.omahahistory.org/newspaper_website/Monitor%201916/Monitor_Sep_16.pdf |archive-date=20 December 2015 }} apparently motivated by a long-time illness.{{cite news |title=Silas Robbins kills self: Ill health cause |work=Omaha World-Herald |date=September 12, 1916 |p=3}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robbins, Silas}}
Category:Lawyers from Omaha, Nebraska
Category:Year of birth unknown
Category:Suicides by firearm in Nebraska
Category:19th-century American lawyers