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John S. Rock
1825 - ?
Name: John S. Rock
Status: Born free
Occupation/Training: Attorney, Physician, Speaker
Residence: MA
Abolitionist Involvement: Rock provided medical services to sick fugitive slaves for the Boston Vigilance Committee run by Lewis Hayden, and worked with William Nell to break down segregation in Boston schools. He was a member of a delegation from the Colored National Convention meeting in Philadelphia sent to visit Passmore Williamson, who was in prison for contempt of court after refusing to reveal the location of three slaves whom he had persuaded to leave their master.
By 1856, Rock was a featured speaker at a Crispus Attucks Day celebration held at Faneuil Hall in Boston with the goal of obtaining a monument to the memory of Crispus Attucks in that city. He was a member of a group known as the Black Committee, which recruited Blacks for the first Black Regiment of the Union Army. He became more militant after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, and urged Blacks to demonstrate their courage individually by attempting some daring act.
He was an early proponent of "Black is beautiful", and stated, "When I contrast the fine, tough muscular system, the rich beautiful color, the full broad features of the Negro, with the delicate physical organization, wan color and lank hair of the Caucasian, I am inclined to believe that when the white man was created, nature was pretty well exhausted."
On the motion of Senator Charles Sumner, Rock was admitted to the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court.
References: Black Abolitionists, by Benjamin Quarles; There is a River, by Vincent Harding.
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