When John S. Rock’s health collapsed in the 1850s, his fight for justice did not end. It only changed form. Forced to leave medicine and dentistry, Rock turned to law, choosing apath that relied on intellect, reason, and moral courage rather than physical endurance. In Boston, he built a legal practice at the heart of abolitionist life and argued for black citizenship. He also supported black military service during the Civil War. Rock used both the courtroom and the lecture platform todemand equality under the law. His admission to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1865 symbolized more than personal achievement; it pointed toward the coming transformation of American law after Dred Scott. This episodetells the story of adaptation without surrender, and what it means to keep going when the struggle demands a new form.

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Have a story, a question, or apossibility you’re exploring? Email Dr. Middleton: possibilityman@icloud.com

Break Free from Emotional Distress:A Practical Guide and Personal Journey by Stephen Middleton is available on Amazon.

John S. Rock was born in 1825 in New Jersey, a state that called itself free while still living with the long shadow of slavery. New Jersey’s Gradual Emancipation Act of 1804 promised freedom only slowly, binding black children to long indentures—twenty-one years for females and twenty-five for males. Rock, however, was born to free parents who understood that in a slaveholding republic, education was not simply uplift but self-defense. From an early age, his abilities were obvious. As a teenager, he became a teacher and was drawn into the abolition movement, doing adult work and absorbing adult ideas long before most young people were given such responsibility.

Yet ambition soon collided with what Rock would come to understand as the “law of race.” Teaching was not enough. He aspired to become a physician, but medical schools repeatedly rejected him. His talent was never in question; race was. Rather than quit, Rock adapted. His first pivot was strategic. He turned to dentistry, a profession that allowed entry through apprenticeship, examination, and licensing rather than formal admission to medical school. He trained under established practitioners, passed the required examinations, and became a licensed dentist in New Jersey.

Rock did not abandon his original goal. While practicing dentistry, he continued studying medicine independentlyunder white physicians willing to teach him. Determined to secure formal credentials, he relocated to Philadelphia and enrolled at the American Medical College of Philadelphia. In 1852, he earned his medical degree. By the early 1850s, John S. Rock was both a physician and a dentist—respected,professionally established, and deeply embedded in black community life. He moved easily among political thinkers and reform leaders, positioning himself for the next chapter of his life, where persistence would again meet resistance, and adaptation would once more become a tool of freedom.

Part 1 traces how John S. Rock learned an enduring lesson early: when doors close because of race, progress requires resilience, strategy, and the refusal to quit.

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Have a story, a question, or a possibility you’re exploring? Email Dr. Middleton: possibilityman@icloud.com

Break Free from Emotional Distress:A Practical Guide and Personal Journey by Stephen Middleton is available on Amazon.

James Otis’s Moment of Moral Clarity

In this episode of the Possibility-Action Network, we return to the question that once shook the conscience of the colonies: Is it right to enslave a man because he is black? James Otis asked that question with moral clarity. If liberty is a natural right, how can slavery ever be right? His idea began to shake the foundations of a nation that claimed freedom as its creed.

We step into late 1700s America, a paradise for slaveholders, where the law protected slavery. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 promised free territory but allowed the removal of runaways. The U.S. Constitution promised liberty while securing slavery’s survival. And in 1793, the Fugitive Slave Act showed the national government would enforce removal. For many, the creed of freedom sounded hollow. The truth of the creed and the reality on the ground were far apart.

Slavery was global, and when we widen the lens, cracks began to open. In England, James Somerset was taken there by Charles Stewart. The case reached Lord Mansfield, who ruled that English law did not support slavery. Somerset walked free. Americans watched. From those ideas arose a principle carried across the Atlantic: once free, always free.

The idea was tested in Mississippi, where Harry and others challenged bondage in the Decker and Hopkins cases. In Kentucky, Lydia and Rankin fought it out in court. Each case revealed a contest: the American creed on one side, the supporters of human exploitation on the other. The outcomes were uneven, but the arc of the universe bent, slowly, toward justice.

Who is included when we say the words “all are created equal?” The American creed calls us to possibility, to optimism, and to moral courage. This episode invites us to stand again in that place of clarity and ask a necessary question: Is it right?

Contact Information

Have a story, a question, or a possibility you’re exploring? Email Dr. Middleton: possibilityman@icloud.com

Break Free from Emotional Distress: A Practical Guide and Personal Journey by Stephen Middleton is available on Amazon