A Rising Virginian.
January 11, 1896
Summary
A black lawyer enjoys great financial success in Kentucky, despite racial bias.
Transcription
Lawyer J. Alexander Chiles, the leading Negro lawyer in central Kentucky, is building up a business of considerable proportions.
When Mr. Chiles came here some four years ago, it was generally said that a colored lawyer couldn't make it in Lexington, and so about all the Negroes thought, and young white lawyers, who at first felt jelous of Mr. Chiles, began to chuckle in their sleeves because Negroes seemed to have no confidence in an intelligent man of their race, and these lawyers reaped the harvest. It was even suggested that Mr. Chiles’ color would bias the courts in their decisions and prejudice the juries against his clients. Knowing the poverty, the Negroes’ lack of confidence in a Negro, and believing Mr. Chiles to be a good and useful man, some of his friends advised him to leave the city or seek another calling. But the brave little Virginian was not made that way and he stayed.
He opened an office right in heart of Legal Row, threw out his shingle, and like the spider, awaited his time. One case in court convinced the public that Mr. Chiles was a first class lawyer, and that the court and jury had due regard for him as such, and with a few more cases, in which he displayed an unselfish interest in his clients and exhibited the strictest honesty, his practice grew, and to-day he is busy all the time looking after the business interests of nearly all the leading Negroes of the city and county.
Everybody has confidence in Mr. Chiles now as a business man and lawyer, and he is doing his race great good and making some money for himself. This is right.
When Mr. Chiles came here some four years ago, it was generally said that a colored lawyer couldn't make it in Lexington, and so about all the Negroes thought, and young white lawyers, who at first felt jelous of Mr. Chiles, began to chuckle in their sleeves because Negroes seemed to have no confidence in an intelligent man of their race, and these lawyers reaped the harvest. It was even suggested that Mr. Chiles’ color would bias the courts in their decisions and prejudice the juries against his clients. Knowing the poverty, the Negroes’ lack of confidence in a Negro, and believing Mr. Chiles to be a good and useful man, some of his friends advised him to leave the city or seek another calling. But the brave little Virginian was not made that way and he stayed.
He opened an office right in heart of Legal Row, threw out his shingle, and like the spider, awaited his time. One case in court convinced the public that Mr. Chiles was a first class lawyer, and that the court and jury had due regard for him as such, and with a few more cases, in which he displayed an unselfish interest in his clients and exhibited the strictest honesty, his practice grew, and to-day he is busy all the time looking after the business interests of nearly all the leading Negroes of the city and county.
Everybody has confidence in Mr. Chiles now as a business man and lawyer, and he is doing his race great good and making some money for himself. This is right.
About this article
Source
Location on Page
Lower Left Quadrant
Topic
Contributed By
Liam Eynan
Citation
“A Rising Virginian.,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed January 20, 2026, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/1680.