Christian Cole (barrister)

Christian Frederick Cole (1852–1885) was the first African barrister to practice in the English courts.[1][2] Originally from Sierra Leone, then a British colony, he was the first black graduate of the University of Oxford, where he studied at University College.[1][3]

Life

Cole was the grandson of a slave,[3] and the adopted son of Reverend James Cole of Waterloo.[4] Prior to his studies at Oxford he was educated at Fourah Bay College in Freetown.[5]

He enrolled at Oxford as a non-collegiate student in 1873, studying classics.[4] Short of money, he paid his way by teaching Responsions, one of the qualifying exams for Oxford degrees, and his classes were reportedly popular.[4] He also taught music lessons: a cartoon of the time depicts him playing a banjo.[4] Cole's popularity at the college is indicated by the fact that when his uncle died and his financial situation worsened, fellow students and the then Master of the College, George Bradley, raised money to help him.[5]

Despite his financial problems and the disadvantages of being unattached to a college, he graduated in 1877 with a fourth-class honours degree[5] and in November of that year was accepted as a member of University College; a position he held until April 1880.[4][2] His presence drew a lot of attention, including press cartoons depicting him with racial stereotypes. His feelings about these reactions are not recorded, and he still took a very visible role in the life of the college,[4] including speaking at the Oxford Union.[5] Cole published two pamphlets, What Do Men Say about Negroes? and Reflections on the Zulu War by a Negro, B.A. in which he wrote:

Ye white men of England

Oh tell, tell, I pray,

If the curse of your land,

Is not, day after day,

To increase your possessions

With reckless delight,

To subdue many nations,

And show them your might.[6]

According to Michèle Mendelssohn, the American abolitionist Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson saw Cole at Oxford and described him as “a very black youth from Africa” in a B.A. gown. "King Cole" was the name that Higginson heard the undergraduates call him.[7]

On leaving Oxford in 1880 he returned to Sierra Leone, but did not find employment, so returned to England to train as a barrister.[4] He was accepted by the Inner Temple in 1883, thus becoming the first black African practising in English courts. He later went to Zanzibar to continue his career in law.[4]

He died of smallpox in 1885, at the age of 33.[4] Pamela Roberts, Founder and Director of Black Oxford Untold Stories brought Christian Cole to the attention of University College Master, Sir Ivor Crewe, and the Colleges’ Governing Body with the aim of putting up a plaque to honour Cole’s significant achievements. On the 14 October 2017, Roberts and Sir Ivor Crewe unveiled a plaque to Christian Frederick Cole, located on University College’s exterior wall, in Logic Lane, opposite the College’s Law Library. www.blackoxford.net/Christian Cole Remembered

Written works

Cole delivered lectures on education in Freetown, which were published in 1880.[4]

In 1879,[8][9] he published his thoughts on the Anglo-Zulu war in Reflections on the Zulu War, By a Negro, BA., of University College, Oxford, and the Inner Temple.[4] In 2006, a copy of this pamphlet, which includes two poems, was put up for sale. Former students and staff of University College donated more than a thousand pounds to buy it for the college's library, where it now resides.[10][4]

Notes

  1. 1 2 Duncan, Natricia (26 October 2014). "Where have the black scholars gone?". The Voice. Retrieved 2017-10-04.
  2. 1 2 Brockliss, L. W. B. (2016). The University of Oxford: A History. Oxford University Press. p. 410. ISBN 9780199243563.
  3. 1 2 "Black History Month". BBC Oxford. 14 October 2008. Retrieved 2017-10-04.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Roberts, Pamela (2014). "Christian Frederick Cole, 1852-85". Black Oxford: The Untold Stories of Oxford University's Black Scholars. Andrews UK Limited. ISBN 9781909930148.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Liddell, Marcus (18 October 2017). "Christian Cole: Oxford University's first black student". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 18 October 2017.
  6. ↑ Reflections on the Zulu War by a Negro, B.A. quoted in Mendelssohn, Michèle (2018). Making Oscar Wilde. Oxford University Press. p. 38. ISBN 9780198802365.
  7. ↑ Michèle, Mendelssohn (2018). Making Oscar Wilde. Oxford University Press. p. 37. ISBN 0198802366. OCLC 1005105982.
  8. ↑ "Reflections on the Zulu War". books.google.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-10-04.
  9. ↑ Raugh Jr, Harold E. (2011-06-01). Anglo-Zulu War, 1879: A Selected Bibliography. Scarecrow Press. p. 266. ISBN 9780810874671.
  10. ↑ "College News". Univ Newsletter. University College, Oxford (24): 3. 2006.
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