George Mabson Gravestone
*The birth of George Lawrence Mabson is celebrated on this date in 1845. He was a Black soldier, lawyer, and politician. His father was George W. Mabson, a prominent white-American in Wilmington, North Carolina. His mother was Eliza Moore, a Black woman.
During the American Civil War, on February 15, 1864, he enlisted in the 5th Massachusetts Colored Cavalry as a Private and was mustered out in Clarksville, Texas, as a full Commander Sergeant. He also served in the Navy. After the war, he studied law at Howard University in Washington, D.C. He married Rosanna Patterson on September 13, 1866.
Mabson was the first Black Attorney in the State of North Carolina. Served in the North Carolina House of Representatives and North Carolina Senate and represented New Hanover County, North Carolina, in the Constitutional Convention of 1875. Later, he served as Vice President of the Colored Education Convention in Raleigh, North Carolina, was elected Lieutenant Colonel of the Fourth and Fifth Battalions, North Carolina Troops, and was President of the Discharged Union Soldiers Association. George Mabson died on October 4, 1885.
