R. C. O. Benjamin

R. C. O. Benjamin
Benjamin in 1887
Born	(1855-03-31)March 31, 1855 St. Kitts
Died	October 2, 1900(1900-10-02) (aged 45) Lexington, Kentucky
Occupation	Journalist, lawyer, minister
Political party	Republican
Religion	African Methodist Episcopal

R. C. O. Benjamin (March 31, 1855-October 2, 1900) was a journalist, lawyer, and minister in the United States. He was an editor or contributor to numerous newspapers throughout the country, and may have been the first black editor of a white paper when he became editor of the Daily Sun In Los Angeles. He was also possibly the first black man admitted to the California bar, and may have been admitted to the bar in twelve states. In 1900 he was working as a prominent lawyer in Lexington Kentucky when he was beaten for helping register black voters by a white man who opposed his efforts. Later that day he was killed by the same man.

Robert Charles O'Hara Benjamin was born in St. Kitts on March 31, 1855. He attended compulsory schools until the age of eleven when he was sent to England for private tutoring, and then enrolled in Trinity College, Oxford University where he studied for three years. He left Oxford without receiving a degree and made a two year tour of the East Indies including Sumatra and Java. After returning to England, he sailed to New York City, arriving April 13, 1869. Ten days later he took a six month cruise to South America and the Caribbean as a cabin boy on the Lepanto captained by Cyrus E. Staples. The tour stopped in Venezuela, Curacoa, Demerara, and the West Indies. In the fall of 1869 he returned and settled in New York City.

In New York he became associated with Henry Highland Garnet, Cornelius Vancott, Isaac Hayes, and Joe Howard, Jr. He took work as a soliciting agent for the paper, the New York Star, where Howard was an editor. In this position, he befriended J. J. Freeman, editor of the Progressive American, and Benjamin was made city editor of that paper. Around this time he was naturalized as a US citizen.