Robert Poindexter | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Louisiana State Senate | |
| In office 1868–1870 | |
| Louisiana House of Representatives | |
| In office 1874 –April 1875 | |
| Personal details | |
| Political party | Republican (until 1876) Democrat (from 1876) |
Robert Poindexter was a state legislator who served in the Louisiana House of Representatives and Louisiana State Senate during the Reconstruction era. [1]
Birth records disagree on his birthplace as being either New York state or Tennessee and he may have been enslaved until 1860. [1] The 1870 census listed him as a New York native aged 38,but 1869 bank records list him as 47 and from Sullivan County,Tennessee. [2] The bank records also list his service in the Union Army during the American Civil War in Company F of the 78th Regiment Infantry U.S. Colored Troops. [2]
He was a member of the 1868 Louisiana constitutional convention representing Assumption Parish,Louisiana. [1] He also a member of the 1867 Louisiana constitutional convention and a signature to the document produced. [3] [2]
Poindexter was elected to the Louisiana State Senate in June 1868 as a Republican representing Assumption,Lafourche and St. Landry Parish's. [4] He served from 1868 until 1870 and then later was elected to serve in the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1874 but only served until 1875 due to the Wheeler Compromise. [1]
In 1875 when being removed from office he stated that one of those replacing him was his former owner E. F. Dugas who he said never ill treated his slaves. [5]
While serving in his first legislative session he lived in New Orleans and shared a house with four fellow legislators (two black and two white),but he kept his official residence as Napoleonville,Louisiana. [2]
In 1875 Governor William Pitt Kellogg appointed Poindexter to the position of supervisor of registration for Assumption Parish. [6]
He was a Republican until 1876 when he changed allegiances to the Democratic Party partly due to the Republicans failure on schools and teachers pay,but also because he disliked Wheeler for the loss of his seat. [2] [7]
While serving in the senate Poindexter introduced a number of bills relating to moral and family values such as the suppression of obscene publications and the outlawing of adultery and concubinage. [1] [2] He also introduced a bill on August 13,1868 to provided children with free school transport which was adopted August 20,1868. [2]
The 1870 United States census lists him as running a ferry company,owing $500 of real estate and $5,000 in personal property. [1]
The Colfax massacre,sometimes referred to as the Colfax riot,occurred on Easter Sunday,April 13,1873,in Colfax,Louisiana,the parish seat of Grant Parish. An estimated 62–153 Black militia men were murdered while surrendering to a mob of former Confederate soldiers and members of the Ku Klux Klan. Three white men also died during the confrontation.
The Coushatta massacre (1874) was an attack by members of the White League,a white supremacist paramilitary organization composed of white Southern Democrats,on Republican officeholders and freedmen in Coushatta,the parish seat of Red River Parish,Louisiana. They assassinated six white Republicans and five to 20 freedmen who were witnesses.
More than 1,500 African American officeholders served during the Reconstruction era (1865–1877) and 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 the end of Reconstruction in 1877. The following is a partial list of notable African American officeholders from the end of the Civil War until before 1900. Dates listed are the year that a term states or the range of years served if multiple terms.
The Wheeler Compromise,sometimes known as the Wheeler Adjustment,was the settlement of the disputed gubernatorial election of 1872 in the U.S. state of Louisiana,and negotiation to organize the state's legislature in January 1875. It was negotiated by,and named after,William A. Wheeler,Congressman from New York and a member of the U.S. House Committee on Southern Affairs. He later was elected as Vice President of the United States.
Robert F. Guichard was a clerk of the Louisiana House of Representatives,a state legislator,and a public official in Louisiana. He was a Republican.
Jules A. Masicot was a state legislator in Louisiana. He served in the Louisiana House of Representatives and Louisiana State Senate and at the state's 1868 constitutional convention.
Alexander E. Barber was an American soldier,newspaper editor and state legislator serving in the Louisiana State Senate from 1870 to 1874.
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William Harper was a state legislator who served in the Louisiana House of Representatives and Louisiana State Senate during the Reconstruction era.
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T. B. Stamps was a businessman,coroner,and newspaper editor who served in the Louisiana House of Representatives and Louisiana State Senate during the Reconstruction era.
Jordan R. Stewart was a state legislator who served in the Louisiana House of Representatives and the Louisiana State Senate during the Reconstruction era.
David Young was a farmer,businessman,minister and state legislator who served in the Louisiana House of Representatives and the Louisiana State Senate during the Reconstruction era. After the civil war during which he came a free man,he became a prosperous farmer,businessman,politician and minister.
Alexander Fortune Riard,was a carpenter,merchant,lawyer and state legislator who served in the Louisiana State Senate from 1876 until 1878.
John B. Esnard was a Reconstruction era politician who served as a delegate at the 1868 Louisiana Constitutional Convention and in the in Louisiana House of Representatives 1868-1870.
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