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J. Vance Lewis

Biography

United States

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Biography

Joseph Vance Lewis (December 25, 1853? – April 24, 1925), was an enslaved American who was freed through emancipation and who came "out of the ditch" to become a lawyer and was admitted to the US Supreme Court. Lewis wrote an autobiographical narrative entitled Out of the Ditch.

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Biography text · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source checked 2026-10-13

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