WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A new historical highway marker will honor Wilmington native George Lawrence Mabson, recognized as North Carolina’s first African American lawyer.
The North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers, along with the Old North State Medical Society and the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, will unveil the marker Saturday, Aug. 15, during the 2026 Joint Annual Continuing Legal and Medical Conference in Wilmington.
Mabson was born in Wilmington around 1845. According to historical records cited by the organizations, he later made his way by sea to Boston, Massachusetts, where he lived in a boarding house run by a self-emancipated Black woman from Wilmington who also provided housing for abolitionists…