John L. Waller was a career Republican and activist who played a significant role in Kansas politics. He was born to slave parents, Anthony and Maria Waller, on a plantation in New Madrid County, Missouri. Some records suggest he was born in 1851, contrary to his own testimony. Waller and his parents were freed by a Union infantry regiment in 1862, and he moved to Iowa where the regiment was based. Thanks to an Iowa farmer who hired him, Waller was able to attend school for four years starting in 1863. He graduated from high school in Toledo, Iowa but his college education was interrupted by an unidentified epidemic that affected his family whom he returned to support. In 1874 Waller moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He began to read legal documents, which led Judge N. M. Hubbard to place his entire legal library at Waller’s disposal. Waller made good use of that library and was admitted to the Iowa bar in 1877. In 1878 Waller moved to Leavenworth, Kansas where he opened a practice. Success came slowly. Local whites preferred white attorneys and local blacks questioned his qualifications.  His skill as a lawyer, however, eventually won him both black … Continue reading John Lewis Waller (1850-1907)