Person

John Adams, Sr.

Attended Yale Divinity School 1901-1902

John Adams, Sr. - *Nebraska Blue Book 1952* (Lincoln, NE: Nebraska Legislative Council, 1952).

Biography

John Adams, Sr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1876 to John and Belle Adams. By the time of the 1900 U.S. census, his mother was widowed and was living with his older brother.1 In 1898, Adams matriculated to Lincoln University before attending Gammon Theological Seminary, graduating in 1901.2 During the 1901 to 1902 academic year, Adams was enrolled at the Yale Divinity School.3 In 1902, he married Hattie E. Bowman in Wilmington, North Carolina.4 At some point before 1914, he obtained a master of arts degree from Campbell College in Jackson, Mississippi.5

Although Adams did not receive a formal law education, he was admitted to the South Carolina bar in 1905, where he began his law practice in Columbia, South Carolina. Alongside his law practice, Adams pastored for the Pilgrim Congregational Church in Columbia.7 From 1907 to 1908, he served as an instructor at Allen University.8 In 1907, John Adams, alongside his co-counsel, Jacob Moorer, defended Pink Franklin, a Black contract laborer who shot a white constable in self-defense.9 Franklin was found guilty, but Adams and Moorer argued that the trial was unconstitutional as the jury was all white, and South Carolina law prevented Black people from serving on a jury. The case managed to reach the Supreme Court where Adams and Moorer were advised by black leaders such as W. E. B. Du Bois to allow a white lawyer, ex-United States Attorney General Charles Bonaparte, to argue the case. Adams and Moorer refused as they wanted to demonstrate the capabilities of Black lawyers.10 In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled against Adams and Moorer’s attempts, claiming that South Carolina did not discriminate by race in jury selection. However, efforts from the NAACP allowed Franklin’s death penalty to be commuted.11

After the trial, Adams was forced to leave his home after being driven out of town by white South Carolinians for his role in the trial.12 He ended up in Spokane, Washington, by 1911, where he continued to practice law.13 In Spokane, he criticized job discrimination against Black people and made speeches at the city hall.14 He moved to Pueblo, Colorado, by 1914, where he oversaw the St. Paul A.M.E. Church that became a beacon to Black organizations in Colorado.15 He later settled in Omaha, Nebraska, where he practiced law continuously for forty years and also served as a reverend to the A.M.E. chapter in the city.16 By 1925, Adams became the presiding elder of the Omaha district of the A.M.E. church.17 The A.M.E. church chose Adams to head the re-opened Greater Payne University in Birmingham, Alabama, where he served from 1932 to 1936. He was also active in the Urban League, the NAACP, and Prince Hall Freemasonry.18

In 1948, Adams was elected an Nebraska state senator for the fifth district, the second Black senator behind his son, John Adams Jr., who had served the fifth district previously.19 He would go on to serve in the Nebraska State Senate for more than a decade and brought forward legislation to end discriminatory labor practices in Nebraska.20 He passed away on April 21, 1962, while serving his seventh two-year term.21

  1. "United States, Census, 1900", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M3NB-78S : Thu Jan 16 18:05:19 UTC 2025), Entry for Reuben Adams and Annie Adams, 1900. ↩

  2. Catalogue of Lincoln University, Chester County, Penna., For The Academical Year 1897-98. (Philadelphia, PA: Press of Allen, Lane & Scott, 1898), 23, https://www.lincoln.edu/_files/langston-hughes-memorial-library/Lincoln%20University%20Catalogues/1897-98.pdf; “Quarterly Bulletin Catalogue Edition: Gammon Theological Seminary, 1901”. Gammon Theological Seminary Catalogs. Gammon Theological Seminary, 1901. Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library, http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12322/gammon.catalog:1901-1902. ↩

  3. The Yale Banner 60 (New Haven: Yale University, 1901), 92, https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015073167382?urlappend=%3Bseq=106%3Bownerid=13510798895527843-124. ↩

  4. "North Carolina, Marriages, 1759-1979", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F848-Y5T : 14 February 2020), John A. Adams, 1902. ↩

  5. https://www.historycolorado.org/story/2023/03/10/sanctuary-refuge-and-shelter. ↩

  6. https://guides.law.sc.edu/EqualRights/LawyerList. ↩

  7. Walsh’s Columbia South Carolina Directory for 1905 (Charleston, SC: The Walsh Directory Company, 1905), 399, https://digital.tcl.sc.edu/digital/collection/sccitydirec/id/2220/rec/14. ↩

  8. Walsh’s Columbia South Carolina Directory for 1907-08 (Charleston, SC: The Walsh Directory Company, 1908), 90, https://digital.tcl.sc.edu/digital/collection/sccitydirec/id/2432; https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2238&context=law_facpub. https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2073&context=law_facpub. ↩

  9. “Pink Franklin Will Hang,” The Bamberg Herald, September 12, 1907, https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/354502604/?match=1&terms=%22Pink%20Franklin%22%20%22John%20Adams%22&pqsid=EkviLBm7SDhDqg_sMCsQ6A%3A21689%3A1033003258. ↩

  10. Emancipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer, 1844-1944 (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999), 261; “Pink Franklin v. South Carolina: The NAACP’s First Case,” American Journal of Legal History 54 no. 3 (2014). ↩

  11. “Pink Franklin v. South Carolina: The NAACP’s First Case,” American Journal of Legal History 54 no. 3 (2014). ↩

  12. Emancipation, 465. ↩

  13. “Short News,” Spokane Chronicle, June 24, 1911, https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/562162912/?match=1&terms=%22John%20Adams%22%20%22lawyer%22%20%22colored%22&pqsid=fcvKJ8ZE4i_tWoFZlL1xLg%3A52345%3A1956855357. ↩

  14. “Opposes Embargo Against Negro,” The Spokesman-Review, August 2, 1911, https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/566168635/?match=1&terms=%22John%20Adams%22%20%22lawyer%22%20%22colored%22&pqsid=fcvKJ8ZE4i_tWoFZlL1xLg%3A36540%3A138083119. ↩

  15. https://www.historycolorado.org/story/2023/03/10/sanctuary-refuge-and-shelter. ↩

  16. “Cleaves Temple C.M.E. Church,” The New Era, February 23, 1923, https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/866711738/?match=1&terms=%22Rev.%20John%20Adams%22&pqsid=Napiob0lukaalTbGyuBPsA%3A632226%3A2091291340. ↩

  17. “Local News,” The New Era, September 25, 1925, https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/866714508/?match=1&terms=%22presiding%20elder%20of%20Omaha%22%20adams&pqsid=Napiob0lukaalTbGyuBPsA%3A2453829%3A694123173. ↩

  18. “Payne University To Re-Open Here With Adams As New Head,” The Selma Times-Journal, September 23, 1932, https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/569898643/?match=1&terms=%22John%20Adams%22%20%22president%22%20%22payne%20university%22&pqsid=Napiob0lukaalTbGyuBPsA%3A3175652%3A1578231724; “Senator John Adams of Nebraska Dies at 86,” The Call, May 4, 1962, https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/senator-john-adams-nebraska-dies-at-86/docview/2873758176/se-2?accountid=15172. ↩

  19. “Nebraska’s Second Senator On the Job,” The Call, January 14, 1949, https://www.proquest.com/docview/2905571379/fulltextPDF/D61AE8B481E04EB7PQ/10?accountid=15172&sourcetype=Historical%20Newspapers. ↩

  20. “Committee Kills Bill to Prohibit Discrimination,” Norfolk Daily News, February 15, 1949, https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/731820041/?match=1&terms=%22Senator%20John%20Adams%22%20%22employment%22&pqsid=Napiob0lukaalTbGyuBPsA%3A5620676%3A1390284017. ↩

  21. “Senator John Adams of Nebraska Dies At 86,” The Call, May 4, 1962, https://www.proquest.com/docview/2873758176?accountid=15172. ↩

Full Name

John Adams, Sr.

Family Name

Adams,

Yale Affiliation

Attended Yale Divinity School 1901-1902

Birth Date

1876

Birth Place

Atlanta, Georgia, United States

Educated At

Lincoln University
Gammon Theological Seminary
Campbell College
Yale Divinity School

Places Lived

Birmingham, Alabama, United States
Pueblo, Colorado, United States
Omaha, Nebraska, United States
Spokane, Washington, United States
Columbia, South Carolina, United States

Death Date

1962

Gender

male

Decade(s) at Yale

1900s
Media
John Adams, Sr. - *Nebraska Blue Book 1952* (Lincoln, NE: Nebraska Legislative Council, 1952).John Adams, Sr. - *Nebraska Blue Book 1952* (Lincoln, NE: Nebraska Legislative Council, 1952).