Richard G.L. Paige, a lawyer and assistant postmaster, was born a slave in Norfolk and was reared by a free African American woman. According to the report of his descendants, Mr. Paige was the son of a white woman of high social standing. He was sent away to Boston where he was trained as a machinist. After the American Civil War, he returned to Virginia and studied law at Howard University, where he graduated in 1879. He acquired extensive holdings in real estate, and opened a law practice in which he represented both African American and white clients. He represented Norfolk County in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1871 to 1875 and from 1879 to 1882. Mr. Paige died in 1904. (Info. from the Virginia General Assembly's Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Commission website).
Richard G.L. Paige, a lawyer and assistant postmaster, was born a slave in Norfolk and was reared by a free African American woman. According to the report of his descendants, Mr. Paige was the son of a white woman of high social standing. He was sent away to Boston where he was trained as a machinist. After the American Civil War, he returned to Virginia and studied law at Howard University, where he graduated in 1879. He acquired extensive holdings in real estate, and opened a law practice in which he represented both African American and white clients. He represented Norfolk County in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1871 to 1875 and from 1879 to 1882. Mr. Paige died in 1904. (Info. from the Virginia General Assembly's Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Commission website).
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