Robert Heberton Terrell (November 27, 1857 – December 20, 1925) was an attorney and the second African American to serve as a justice of the peace in Washington, D.C.

[4] From the founding of the organization until his death in 1925, Terrell remained active among the scholars, editors, and activists of this first major African-American learned society.

He worked with them to refute racist scholarship, promote black claims to individual, social, and political equality, and publish books and articles on the history and sociology of African-American life.

[5] In 1889, Terrell left the M Street School when he was appointed the chief of division, Office of the Fourth Auditor of the U.S. Treasury Department.

[7] In 1911, Terrell was appointed by newly elected President William Howard Taft to the Municipal Court of the District of Columbia.

[8] In 1911 Terrell also received an appointment as a faculty member at Howard University's School of Law, while still serving as a municipal judge.

In February 1911 he became a charter member of the first Washington D.C. chapter of Sigma Pi Phi fraternity, an organization of professional men who were college educated.

[1] In 1919, Terrell, along with Henry Lassiter, Lafayette M. Hershaw, Archibald Grimké, and Walter J. Singleton, was a prime mover in the introduction by Congressman Martin B. Madden of a law (H.R.

That same year, George A. Parker, Philip W. Thomas, Louis R. Mehlinger, Benjamin Gaskins, Chester Jarvis, and Lafayette M. Hershaw founded the Terrell Law School, named in honor of the judge.

It served primarily African-American students, who were prevented from attending local white law schools, and provided evening classes from 1931 to 1950.

[12][13] In 1952, the Robert H. Terrell Junior High School, named in his honor, opened at 100 Pierce Street, NW, Washington, DC.