James A. Cobb

James Adlai Cobb (January 29, 1876 – October 14, 1958) was an African-American lawyer, judge, and civil rights activist. He was a law professor at Howard University Law School, later becoming the school's vice-dean. As an attorney, he participated in court cases to help overturn discriminatory laws against African-Americans in the United States. Little is known about his parents, but his mother was thought to be Eleanor J. Pond, a white woman. Cobb was orphaned as a young boy, and with no relatives to raise him, he was instead raised by family friends. During the university's breaks, he worked at the Pullman Palace Car Company in their commissary department. Once he completed his studies as Fisk, he moved to Washington, D.C., to attend Howard University.

Legal career In 1901, Cobb was admitted to the bar in Washington, D.C. He began practicing law in the city, and mainly took on racial discrimination cases.

In November 1907, Cobb was appointed as a special assistant attorney to the Attorney General for the District of Columbia by president Theodore Roosevelt and attorney general Charles Joseph Bonaparte. He served in the position from 1907 to 1915, becoming the first black man to work as a special assistant in the Department of Justice. The guilty verdict against Edgar C. Caldwell was appealed. Caldwell was a Black United States sergeant who was sentenced to hang by an all-white jury in Calhoun County, Alabama. The NAACP searched for a larger defense team for Caldwell before the case went to the Alabama Supreme Court. At the time, Cobb was the chairman of the legal committee for the NAACP's Washington, D.C., branch, and he was able to "briefly [raise] the spirits of Caldwell's defense team". However, the Alabama Supreme Court upheld the sentence against Caldwell.

Cobb was a professor at Howard University Law School and in 1923, he became the vice-dean of the law school. He held the position of vice-dean until 1929.

In 1926, Cobb was appointed Judge of the Municipal Court in Washington, D.C., becoming "the only African American on the municipal bench." W. E. B. DuBois wrote to him about plans for Cobb to serve on a committee discussing The Crisis publication and its connections with the NAACP. He also corresponded with Charles Young.

Cobb died of leukemia in Washington, D.C., on October 14, 1958, at the age of 82.