Thomas F. Cassels

Thomas Cassels, born about 1845 in Berlin Crossroads, Ohio, was the first Black member of the Memphis bar association. He served one term in the Tennessee House, in 1881 and 1882, then as an assistant attorney general in Memphis, and was a presidential elector in 1888. With Josiah Settle he defended members of Rev. Taylor Nightingale's church against charges that the pastor's leadership was militant; Nightingale was convicted and fled Memphis. Cassels died of tuberculosis in Memphis on April 2, 1903.

What the plaque says

Thomas F. Cassels Thomas F. Cassels is considered the first Black to practice law in Memphis. After moving to Memphis in 1875, he was appointed "attorney pro tem" of the Criminal Court in 1880 and served in the Tennessee General Assembly from 1881 to 1883. During the 1880s, he was Collector of the Port of Memphis and in 1883 was appointed U.S. Surveyor of Customs. His first office was located at 317 Second Street.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stax Museum of American Soul Music — 1.0 mi
  A rebuilt Stax studio on the site of the old Capitol Theatre, with a replica of the sloped-floor Studio A, Isaac Hayes's Cadillac and the story of an integrated soul label.
• Elmwood Cemetery — 1.3 mi
  Memphis's oldest active cemetery, a rural garden cemetery of about 1,500 trees opened in 1852, with Black civic leaders, yellow fever victims and the city's whole history in its lots.
• Sun Studio — 2.4 mi
  The small Union Avenue room where Sam Phillips recorded Rocket 88, Howlin' Wolf, Elvis Presley and the Million Dollar Quartet, now a National Historic Landmark.
• 1866 Memphis Massacre Marker at Army Park — 2.9 mi
  A privately funded NAACP marker in a small downtown park, placed in 2016, that names the May 1866 attack on Black South Memphis as a massacre.

More markers nearby

• Zion Cemetery — steps away
• Stax Recording Studios — 1.1 mi
• Forrest's Artillery Positions -Aug. 21, 1964- — 1.2 mi
• LeMoyne-Owen College — 1.3 mi