Simeon Farr

Simeon Farr was an American politician who was elected as a state representative in 1868 in South Carolina during the Reconstruction era. ^{[1] [2]} He represented Union County, South Carolina. ^[3] His photograph was used in a composite of Radical Republican officials from South Carolina. ^[4] His name is spelled Simon Farr in an 1868 House document. ^[5]

1868 Constitutional Convention

The 1868 convention demonstrated that black males could dominate South Carolina politics. At the constitutional convention held on 14 January 1868, nearly all delegates were Republicans and fifty nine percent of delegates were black, including all three representatives from Union County: Junius S. Mobles, Simeon Farr, and Samuel Nuckles. ^[6] The convention accomplished substantial reforms, including the protection of voting rights and educational reform. When the state held elections the following April, blacks and Republicans again swept the election, and they passed the new state constitution, ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, and oversaw South Carolina’s readmission into the Union. Ironically, readmission meant that the U.S. Army would play a diminished role in civil affairs, clearing the way for insurgent conservatives to unleash an extralegal campaign of violence and terror in order to reassert their rule. ^{[7] [8]}

See also

• List of African-American officeholders during Reconstruction

References

1. Martin, Mart (2018). The Almanac Of Women And Minorities In American Politics 2002. Routledge. ISBN   9780429976483 – via Google Books.
2. 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): 63–119. doi:10.2307/2713503. JSTOR   2713503. S2CID   149610698.
3. Baker, Bruce E. (January 15, 2009). This Mob Will Surely Take My Life: Lynchings in the Carolinas, 1871–1947. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN   9781441137227 – via Google Books.
4. "Radical Members of the South Carolina Legislature composite photograph at the National Museum of African American History". nmaahc.si.edu.
5. House, United States Congress (June 3, 1868). "House Documents, Otherwise Publ. as Executive Documents: 13th Congress, 2d Session; 49th Congress, 1st Session" – via Google Books.
6. Allan D. Charles, the Narrative History of Union County, South Carolina (Spartanburg: The Reprint Company, 1987)
7. Edgar, Walter B. (1999). South Carolina: a history (Nachdr. ed.). Columbia, SC: Univ. of South Carolina Press. ISBN   978-1-57003-255-4.
8. Zuczek, Richard (1996). State of rebellion: reconstruction in South Carolina (Pbk. ed.). Columbia, S.C: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN   978-1-57003-848-8.