John Mercer Langston was the first black man to become a lawyer when he passed the bar in Ohio in 1854. When he was elected to the post of Town Clerk for Brownhelm, Ohio, in 1855 Langston became one of the first African Americans ever elected to public office in America. During his early career, Langston assisted many runaway slaves along Ohio’s Underground Railroad and founded anti-slavery societies. John Mercer Langston was also the great-uncle of Langston Hughes, famed poet of the Harlem Renaissance.