The 13th Constitutional Amendment abolished slavery in the United States. On Feb. 1, 1865, the day after its abolition, John S. Rock became the first African American admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court. Rock was a native of Salem, New Jersey. In his early days, he taught in Salem’s public schools, became an acclaimed dentist and also one of the first African Americans to earn a medical degree. 

With several accomplishments under his belt, Rock was seen as an uplifting figure and a voice of leadership for abolitionists.  

“White men may despise, ridicule, slander and abuse us; they may seek as they always have done to divide us, and make us feel degraded; but no man shall cause me to turn my back upon my race. With it I will sink or swim,” Rock said in a famous speech delivered in 1858 at Boston’s Faneuil Hall. “It is true, considering the circumstances under which we have been placed by our white neighbors, we have a right to ask them not only to cease to oppress us, but to give us that encourage-ment which our talents and industry may merit.”