African-American officeholders during and following the Reconstruction era

From Justapedia, unleashing the power of collective wisdom
Jump to navigation Jump to search

First African American U.S. Senator Hiram Revels and U.S. Representatives (R-MS), Rep. Benjamin S. Turner (R-AL), Robert DeLarge (R-SC), Josiah Walls (R-FL), Jefferson Long (R-GA), Joseph Rainey and Robert B. Elliott (R-SC)

More than 1,500 African American officeholders served during the Reconstruction era (1865–1877)[1] after passage of the Reconstruction Acts in 1867 and 1868 as well as in the years after Reconstruction before white supremacy, disenfranchisement, and the Democratic Party fully reasserted control in Southern states. Historian Canter Brown, Jr. noted that in some states, such as Florida, the highest number of African Americans were elected or appointed to offices after 1877 and the end of Reconstruction. The following is a partial list some of the most notable of the officeholders pre–1900.

U.S. Senate

U.S. House

Main article: First generation of African-American House members, 1870–1893

Alabama

State Senate

1868 Legislature

From 1868 to 1878 more than 100 African Americans served in the Alabama Legislature.[2]

House

1870 legislature

House

1872 Legislature

Senate

House

Alabama legislators at the capitol in 1872

1874 Legislature

House

1876 Legislature

House

1878 Legislature

House

Other

Arkansas

Between 1868 and 1893, 85 men noted as either "Colored" or "Mulatto" served in the state legislature (House and Senate) of Arkansas. They served under the 1868 Arkansas Constitution that granted them the right to vote and hold office and then the 1874 Constitution, instituted after Democrats retook control of state government. After 1893, the next African-American to serve as a state legislator in Arkansas was in 1973.[7][8]

Statewide officeholders

  • Joseph Carter Corbin, chief clerk of the Little Rock Post Office (1872), state superintendent of public schools (1873-1875)

1868 Arkansas Constitutional Convention

  • William Henry Grey, Arkansas Constitutional Convention (1868)
  • James T. White, Arkansas Constitutional Convention (1868), commissioner of public works and internal improvements (1872)

Arkansas Senate

Arkansas House

Local offices

Colorado

House

Local offices

Florida

Senate

House

Local offices

Georgia

Georgia State Senate

Georgia House of Representatives

Other officials

Illinois

Illinois House of Representatives

Indiana

Indiana did not have any African American legislators during the Reconstruction era,[17] with James S. Hinton being the first African American to serve in the Indiana state legislature 1881–1882.

Kansas

Kansas did not have any African American legislators during the Reconstruction era,[17] with Alfred Fairfax being the first African American to serve in the Indiana state legislature 1888–1889.

Louisiana

In Louisiana, 24 African Americans served in the Louisiana Senate and more than 100 served in the Louisiana House of Representatives.[18]

In addition, six black men held statewide office in Louisiana, including the nation's first and second black acting governors.

Three African Americans served as Louisiana's lieutenant governor.

Others served as secretary of state, state treasurer, and state superintendent of education.

Members of the Louisiana Senate

Members of the Louisiana House of Representatives

Local offices

Maryland

Local offices

  • William Butler, Member of the Annapolis Board of Aldermen (1873)
  • William H. Day, Baltimore Inspector of Schools, in 1878 he was elected to the school board of directors at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Massachusetts

Massachusetts House of Representatives

Local offices

Michigan

House

Local offices

  • Samuel C. Watson, State Board of Estimates, 1875; Detroit City Council, 1875, 1883-1886

Minnesota

Minnesota did not have any African American legislators during the Reconstruction era,[17] with John Francis Wheaton being the first African American to serve in the Minnesota state legislature as a representative 1899–1900.

Mississippi

The Mississippi Plan was part of an organized effort campaign of terror and violence the Democratic Party and Ku Klux Klan used to disenfranchise African Americans in Mississippi, block them from holding office, end Reconstruction, and restore white supremacy in the state.

U.S. Senate

Mississippi was the only U.S. state that elected African American candidates to the U.S. Senate during the Reconstruction Era:

Photo composite of Mississippi state legislators in 1874 by E. von Seutter

Members of the Mississippi Senate

Members of the Mississippi House of Representatives

Other

Nebraska

Members of the Nebraska House of Representatives

Local offices

North Carolina

Ohio

Members of the Ohio Senate

Members of the Ohio House of Representatives

Local offices

  • Jeremiah A. Brown, Cleveland, bailiff of the county probate court, deputy sheriff and county prison turnkey, then clerk of the City Boards of Equalization and Revision.[30]
  • Robert James Harlan, mail agent

South Carolina

A composite image of 63 "Radical Republicans" in the South Carolina Legislature in 1868 including 50 "negroes or mullatoes"

Members of South Carolina Senate

Members of South Carolina House of Representatives

Local offices

Tennessee

Only one African American served in the Tennessee Legislature during the 1870s, but more than a dozen followed in the 1880s as Republican's retook the governorship. They advocated for schools for African Americans, spoke against segregated public facilities some of which were off limits completely to African Americans, and advocated for voting rights protections.[35]

Texas

Four African-Americans won election to the Texas Senate and 32 others served in the Texas House of Representatives during the Reconstruction era.[37]

Members of the Texas Senate

Members of the Texas House of Representatives

Virginia

The Virginia Senate enacted Joint Resolution No. 89 in 2012 recognising that although federal Reconstruction ended in 1877 due to Jim Crow laws Reconstruction in Virginia lasted from 1869 to 1890.[46]

Members of the Virginia Senate

Members of the Virginia House of Delegates

Virginia Constitutional Convention

Other offices

  • P. H. A. Braxton, constable in King William County in 1872, collector at the United States Custom House in Westmoreland County

Washington

Washington did not have any African American legislators during the Reconstruction era,[17] with William Owen Bush being the first African American to serve in the Washington state legislature 1889–1891.

West Virginia

West Virginia did not have any African American legislators during the Reconstruction era,[17] with Christopher Payne being the first African American to serve in the West Virginia state legislature 1896.

Wyoming

Wyoming did not have any African American legislators during the Reconstruction era,[17] with William Jefferson Hardin being the first African American to serve in the Wyoming state legislature 1879 - 1883.

Washington, D.C.

  • Solomon G. Brown, House of Delegates for Washington D.C. (1871-1874), employee at the Smithsonian[49]
  • John Mercer Langston, appointed member of the Board of Health of the District of Columbia
  • John H. Smythe, 1872, clerk in the U.S. Census Bureau, clerk in the Treasury department, 1878 ambassador to Liberia
  • William E. Matthews, clerk in the United States Postal Service in Washington D.C. in 1870, the first black person to receive an appointment in that department[50]
  • Josiah T. Settle, reading clerk of the Washington, D.C. House of Delegates (1872), clerk in the Board of Public Works, as an accountant in the Board of Audits, and as a trustee of the county schools for the district

See also

References

  1. ^ "Reconstruction | Definition, Summary, Timeline & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica.
  2. ^ "x-index :: Reconstruction :: Politics :: Lest We Forget". lestweforget.hamptonu.edu.
  3. ^ "Archives/Five: 1872 Alabama Senate Reconstruction Photograph (Video) | Alabama Blogs & Entertainment".
  4. ^ https://archives.alabama.gov/afro/AfricanAmerican%20Legislators%20in%20Reconstruction%20Alabama1867.pdf[bare URL PDF]
  5. ^ "Black members of the Alabama Legislature who served during reconstruction - Alabama Historical Markers on Waymarking.com". www.waymarking.com.
  6. ^ Simmons, William J., and Henry McNeal Turner. Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising. GM Rewell & Company, 1887. p390-393
  7. ^ "A family legacy: Local woman recounts grandfather's public service following Reconstruction". texarkanagazette.com.
  8. ^ "Black History Month 2021". Arkansas House of Representatives.
  9. ^ a b "Carl H. Moneyhon". peace.saumag.edu.
  10. ^ Dawson, R. (December 31, 1881). "1881 House of Representatives composite photo of the Twenty-Second General Assembly of the State of Arkansas". Arkansas General Assembly Composite Images, 1866-2011.
  11. ^ "Arkansas Times - February 5, 2015". Issuu.
  12. ^ Florida's Black Public Officials, 1867 - 1924 by Carter Brown Jr. University of Alabama Press (1998) page 71
  13. ^ Florida's Black Public Officials by Canter Brown Jr. page 75
  14. ^ Florida's Black Public Officials page 77
  15. ^ Florida's Black Public Officials page 78
  16. ^ Florida's Black Public Officials 1867 - 1924 by Canter Brown Jr., University of Alabama Press, 1998
  17. ^ a b c d e f Foner, Eric (August 1, 1996). Freedom's Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders During Reconstruction. LSU Press. ISBN 978-0-8071-2082-8. Retrieved April 22, 2022.
  18. ^ Vincent, Charles (January 28, 2011). Black Legislators in Louisiana during Reconstruction. SIU Press. ISBN 9780809385812 – via Google Books.
  19. ^ Edwards, Barrington S.., Weldon, Nick., Mitchell, Brian K.. Monumental: Oscar Dunn and His Radical Fight in Reconstruction Louisiana. United States: The Historic New Orleans Collection, 2021.
  20. ^ Vincent, Charles (January 28, 2011). Black Legislators in Louisiana during Reconstruction. SIU Press. ISBN 978-0-8093-8581-2. Retrieved January 12, 2022.
  21. ^ a b Vincent, Charles (1976). "Louisiana's Black Legislators and Their Efforts to Pass a Blue Law During Reconstruction". Journal of Black Studies. 7 (1): 47–56. doi:10.1177/002193477600700104. JSTOR 2783730. S2CID 143949628 – via JSTOR.
  22. ^ Obituary: Anthony Overton Sr." (Lawrence KS) Western Recorder, April 18, 1884, p.3
  23. ^ Work, Monroe N.; Staples, Thomas S.; Wallace, H. A.; Miller, Kelly; McKinlay, Whitefield; Lacy, Samuel E.; Smith, R. L.; McIlwaine, H. R. (1920). "Some Negro Members of Reconstruction Conventions and Legislatures and of Congress". The Journal of Negro History. 5 (1): 73. doi:10.2307/2713503. ISSN 0022-2992. JSTOR 2713503. S2CID 149610698.
  24. ^ "Jeremiah M. P. Williams (Adams County) · Against All Odds: The First Black Legislators in Mississippi · Mississippi State University Libraries". msstate-exhibits.libraryhost.com.
  25. ^ Freedom's Lawmakers page xlv
  26. ^ Fletcher, ~ Adam F. C. (March 18, 2019). "A History of North Omaha's African American Legislators".
  27. ^ Foner, Eric (August 1, 1996). Freedom's Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders During Reconstruction. LSU Press. ISBN 9780807120828.
  28. ^ Simmons, William J., and Henry McNeal Turner. Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising. GM Rewell & Company, 1887. p422-425
  29. ^ Simmons, William J., and Henry McNeal Turner. Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising. GM Rewell & Company, 1887. p133-143
  30. ^ Simmons, William J., and Henry McNeal Turner. Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising. GM Rewell & Company, 1887. p113-117
  31. ^ Simmons, William J., and Henry McNeal Turner. Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising. GM Rewell & Company, 1887. p327 – 335
  32. ^ Eichelberger, Julia; Fick, Sarah. "14 Green Way - Built for an African American during Reconstruction, later served as a women's residence hall". Discovering Our Past: College of Charleston Histories. Retrieved March 6, 2020.
  33. ^ "South Carolina Legislature Online - Search". www.scstatehouse.gov.
  34. ^ 1870 York County Census, p. 77
  35. ^ Cartwright, Joseph H. (1973). "Black Legislators in Tennessee in the 1800's: A Case Study in Black Political Leadership". Tennessee Historical Quarterly. 32 (3): 265–284. JSTOR 42623393.
  36. ^ "African American Legislators". tennsos.org.
  37. ^ "Early African-American Senators | TSLAC". www.tsl.texas.gov.
  38. ^ "Texas Legislators: Past & Present - Mobile". lrl.texas.gov.
  39. ^ "Legislative Reference Library | Legislators and Leaders | Member profile". lrl.texas.gov.
  40. ^ "Texas Legislators: Past & Present - Mobile". lrl.texas.gov.
  41. ^ "TSHA | Washington, James H." www.tshaonline.org.
  42. ^ "TSHA | Wilder, Allen W." www.tshaonline.org.
  43. ^ "TSHA | Williams, Benjamin Franklin". www.tshaonline.org.
  44. ^ "TSHA | Williams, Richard". www.tshaonline.org.
  45. ^ "TSHA | Wyatt, George W." www.tshaonline.org.
  46. ^ "Bill Tracking - 2012 session > Legislation". leg1.state.va.us. Retrieved April 23, 2022.
  47. ^ "Alexander G. Lee (d. by October 10, 1901) – Encyclopedia Virginia". Retrieved April 23, 2022.
  48. ^ "Fountain M. Perkins (1816 or 1817–1896) – Encyclopedia Virginia". Retrieved April 23, 2022.
  49. ^ Simmons, William J., and Henry McNeal Turner. Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising. GM Rewell & Company, 1887. p291-295
  50. ^ Simmons, William J., and Henry McNeal Turner. Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising. GM Rewell & Company, 1887. p246-251

Further reading

  • A Brief Biography of John Willis Menard from Southern University's John B. Cade Library
  • Bailey, Richard. Black Officeholders During the Reconstruction of Alabama, 1867-1878 (Pyramid Publishing) Available from author.
  • Bailey, Richard. Neither Carpetbaggers Nor Scalawags: Black Officeholders During the Reconstruction of Alabama, 1867-1878. Montgomery: Richard Bailey Publishers, 1995.
  • Canter Brown, Jr. Florida's Black Public Officials, 1867-1924. Tuscaloosa and London: The University of Alabama Press, 1998.
  • Eric Foner ed., Freedom's Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders During Reconstruction Revised Edition. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996). ISBN 0-8071-2082-0. Between 1865 and 1877, about two thousand blacks held elective and appointive offices in the South. A few are relatively well-known, but most have been obscure and omitted from official state histories. Foner profiles more than 1,500 black legislators, state officials, sheriffs, justices of the peace, and constables in this volume.
  • John Hope Franklin "John Roy Lynch: Republican Stalwart from Mississippi" in Howard Rabinowitz (ed.), Southern Black Leaders of the Reconstruction Era, (Urbana: 1982) and reprinted in John Hope Franklin, Race and History: Selected Essays, 1938-1988, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989
  • Mifflin Wistar Gibbs Shadow and Light: An Autobiography Autobiography with Reminiscences of the Last and Present Century, Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1995.
  • Rabinowitz, Howard N. Southern Black Leaders of the Reconstruction Era (University of Illinois Press: 1982)[1] Section on "Congressmen" includes profiles of "John R. Lynch: Republican Stalwart from Mississippi" by John Hope Franklin, "James T. Rapier of Alabama and the Noble Cause of Reconstruction" by Loren Schweninger, and "James O'Hara of North Carolina: Black Leadership and Local Government" by Eric Anderson.

External links

Retrieved from "https://justapedia.org/index.php?title=African-American_officeholders_during_and_following_the_Reconstruction_era&oldid=1119222913"