Paris Simkins | |
---|---|
Born | 1849 |
Died | 1930 |
Occupation(s) | African-American storekeeper, lawyer, minister, barber, and politician |
Paris Simkins (1849-1930) was an African-American storekeeper, lawyer, minister, barber, and politician. Born into slavery, Simkins founded the Macedonia Baptist Church in Edgefield, South Carolina. A staunch Republican, he served in multiple governmental offices following the Civil War, including the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1872 to 1876. [1]
Simkins was born in 1849 to slavery in Edgefield County, South Carolina. He was the son of his white owner, newspaper editor Arthur Simkins, and his enslaved mother. In 1866, he and another formerly enslaved man wrote to Major General Daniel Sickles. In that letter, the men appealed "to the Government for protection." During Reconstruction, Simkins founded the Macedonia Baptist Church in the town of Edgefield. He was actively involved in politics during Reconstruction; he served as a lieutenant colonel in the South Carolina State Militia, town postmaster, and elected member of the South Carolina House of Representatives (1872-1876). While in the legislature, Simkins was admitted to and studied at the University of South Carolina, from which he graduated in 1876. In that election, former slaveholder and Confederate loyalist Wade Hampton III narrowly won the governorship, largely due to fraud and intimidation. Afterward, Simkins focused his efforts on building his church and organizing the Knights of Pythias of North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia fraternal organization in Edgefield. In 1885, he was admitted to the state bar, though he never practiced as a lawyer. [1] Simkins is buried in the cemetery attached to the Macedonia Baptist Church in Edgefield, South Carolina. [2]
In 1938, his grandson, Charles B. Bailey applied to the all-white University of South Carolina School of Law. Despite his grandfather having graduated from USC decades prior, Bailey's admission stalled. After months of being told it was "under consideration", a leading member of the University's Board of Trustees declared an unwillingness to admit non-whites. Bailey took a job with the United States Post Office [3] and spearheaded the integration of post office letter carriers in Columbia in the 1940s.
Edgefield is a town in and the county seat of Edgefield County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 4,750 at the 2010 census.
Benjamin Ryan Tillman was a politician of the Democratic Party who served as governor of South Carolina from 1890 to 1894, and as a United States Senator from 1895 until his death in 1918. A white supremacist who opposed civil rights for black Americans, Tillman led a paramilitary group of Red Shirts during South Carolina's violent 1876 election. On the floor of the U.S. Senate, he defended lynching, and frequently ridiculed black Americans in his speeches, boasting of having helped kill them during that campaign.
In the history of the United States, carpetbagger is a largely historical pejorative used by Southerners to describe allegedly opportunistic or disruptive Northerners who came to the Southern states after the American Civil War, and were perceived to be exploiting the local populace for their own financial, political, and/or social gain. The term broadly included both individuals who sought to promote Republican politics, and individuals who saw business and political opportunities because of the chaotic state of the local economies following the war. In practice, the term carpetbagger often was applied to any Northerners who were present in the South during the Reconstruction Era (1865–1877). The word is closely associated with scalawag, a similarly pejorative word used to describe native white Southerners who supported the Republican Party-led Reconstruction.
Daniel Henry Chamberlain was an American planter, lawyer, author and the 76th Governor of South Carolina from 1874 until 1876 or 1877. The federal government withdrew troops from the state and ended Reconstruction that year. Chamberlain was the last Republican governor of South Carolina until James B. Edwards was elected in 1974.
Francis Wilkinson Pickens was an American slave owner and politician who served as governor of South Carolina when that state became the first to secede from the United States. A cousin of Senator John C. Calhoun, he was born into the Southern planter class. A member of the Democratic Party, Pickens became an ardent supporter of nullification of federal tariffs when he served in the South Carolina House of Representatives before he was elected to the United States Senate.
Franklin Israel Moses Jr. was a South Carolina lawyer and editor who became active as a Republican politician in the state during the Reconstruction Era. He was elected to the legislature in 1868 and as governor in 1872, serving into 1874. Enemies labelled him the 'Robber Governor'.
Matthew Calbraith Butler was a Confederate soldier, an American military commander, attorney and politician, and slaveholder from South Carolina. He served as a major general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, reconstruction era three-term United States Senator, and a major general in the United States Army during the Spanish–American War.
Robert Smalls was an American politician who was born into slavery in Beaufort, South Carolina. During the American Civil War, the still enslaved Smalls commandeered a Confederate transport ship in Charleston Harbor and sailed it from the Confederate-controlled waters of the harbor to the U.S. blockade that surrounded it. He then piloted the ship to the Union-controlled enclave in Beaufort–Port Royal–Hilton Head area, where it became a Union warship. In the process, he freed himself, his crew, and their families. His example and persuasion helped convince President Abraham Lincoln to accept African-American soldiers into the Union Army.
Thomas Salem Bocock was a Confederate politician and lawyer from Virginia. After serving as an antebellum United States Congressman, he was the speaker of the Confederate States House of Representatives during most of the American Civil War.
Edmund William McGregor Mackey was a lawyer, state representative, and United States Representative from South Carolina. He was a leader in the Republican Party.
Martin Witherspoon Gary was an attorney, soldier, and politician from South Carolina. He attained the rank of brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He played a major leadership role in the 1876 Democratic political campaign to elect Wade Hampton III as governor, planning a detailed campaign to disrupt the Republican Party and black voters by violence and intimidation.
David Drake, also known as "Dave Pottery" and "Dave the Potter," was an American potter and enslaved African American who lived in Edgefield, South Carolina. Drake lived and worked in Edgefield for almost all his life.
Solomon Lafayette Hoge was a lawyer, soldier, judge and politician in Ohio and South Carolina.
Eldred Simkins was a U.S. Representative from South Carolina.
George Dionysius Tillman was a Democratic politician from South Carolina. He was a state representative, state senator, and U.S. Representative. He was the brother of Governor Benjamin Ryan Tillman, and father of James H. Tillman, who was Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina from 1901 to 1903 and in the latter year shot newspaper editor Narciso Gener Gonzales and was acquitted.
Basil Manly Sr. was an American planter, preacher and chaplain best known as the author of the Alabama Resolutions, which formed part of the argument for creation of the Southern Baptist Convention on proslavery grounds.
Prince R. Rivers was a former enslaved man from South Carolina who served as a soldier in the Union Army and as a state politician during the Reconstruction era. He escaped and joined Union lines, becoming a sergeant in the 1st South Carolina Volunteers, a Union regiment in the American Civil War.
Harrison N. Bouey was a minister in South Carolina, Alabama, and Missouri and a missionary in Liberia. He was noted as a leader in efforts to help Africans emigrate to Africa at the end of reconstruction in the 1870s. He was also involved in education in the south, and was an early leader of Selma University in Selma, Alabama, and co-founder of Western College Preparatory School in Macon, Missouri.
Lawrence Cain was a lawyer, state representative, state senator, and public official in various offices during the Reconstruction era.
Alfred Rush was a state representative in South Carolina during the Reconstruction era, serving two non-consecutive terms between 1868 and 1876. Rush was one of four men who represented Darlington County, South Carolina, three of whom were African Americans and one was white. Rush was elected to serve just a few years after the Civil War (1861–1865). He was ambushed and murdered on May 13, 1876.