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More than 1,500 African American officeholders served during the Reconstruction era (1865–1877) 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.
George W. Albright was a farmer, educator, and politician who was born enslaved in the U.S. state of Mississippi. A Republican, Albright represented Marshall County in the Mississippi State Senate from 1874 to 1879 during the end of the Reconstruction Era. In 1873, Albright won his Senate seat by defeating the Democrat E. H. Crump, a leader in the Ku Klux Klan.
George Washington Gayles was a Baptist minister and state legislator in Mississippi. He was in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1872 until 1875 and to the Mississippi Senate from 1878 until 1886. He was a candidate for United States House of Representatives in 1892, but received only 6% of the vote due to the voter suppression laws of that period. He was also a noted Baptist minister and was known as the "Father of the Convention" of African American Baptists in Mississippi.
Thomas Whitmarsh Cardozo was an American educator, journalist, and public official during the Reconstruction Era in the United States. He served as State Superintendent of Education in Mississippi and is the first African American to have held the position.
Hannibal Caesar Carter was the Secretary of State of Mississippi from September 1 to October 20, 1873, and from November 13, 1873, to January 4, 1874, serving the first term after being appointed when Hiram R. Revels resigned. He also served two non-consecutive terms representing Warren County in the Mississippi House of Representatives, the first from 1872 to 1873 the second from 1876 to 1877, both times as a Republican. In later years he changed his affiliation to Democrat. He was one of several African Americans to serve as Mississippi Secretary of State during the Reconstruction era.
James D. Cessor was a saddle and harness maker, state legislator, and public official in Mississippi. He represented Jefferson County, Mississippi in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1871 to 1877.
Weldon W. Edwards was an alderman, deputy sheriff, and state legislator in Mississippi. He represented Warren County, Mississippi in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1874 to 1877 and in 1882 and 1883.
J. H. Johnson was a state legislator in Mississippi. He represented DeSoto County, Mississippi in the Mississippi House of Representatives 1872-1875.
A. A. Rogers or A. A. Rodgers was a state legislator in Mississippi. He was a representative of Marshall County, Mississippi in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1874 to 1875. He was a Republican, and African American. In 1873, he served in the state Republican convention. He aligned with the temperance movement, and voted to sustain the governor's veto of a bill relating to liquor.
Harrison H. Truhart. was a blacksmith and state legislator in Mississippi serving as a representative from 1872 to 1875. In 1872 he was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives to represent Holmes County, Mississippi along with Perry Howard and F. Stewart. In 1874, again with Perry Howard and Tenant Weatherly replacing Stewart, he represented Holmes County in the House.
Haskin S. Smith was a state legislator in Mississippi. He represented Claiborne County, Mississippi in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1872 to 1876. His marriage to a white woman (miscegnation) in 1874 was controversial. He opposed an 1875 proposal to have convicts work away from penetentiaries.
William H. Lynch was a state legislator in Mississippi. He represented Adams County, Mississippi in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1874 to 1877 and from 1882 to 1889. He was a Republican. He pushed for a bill to establish and fund an institute in Natchez, Mississippi for blind African Americans.
William R. Landers was a state legislator in Mississippi. He represented Jefferson County, Mississippi in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1872 to 1876.
Joseph Smothers was a Baptist minister and state legislator in Mississippi. He represented Claiborne County in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1872 to 1875.
Jeremiah M. P. Williams was a Baptist preacher and state legislator in Mississippi. He served several terms in the Mississippi Senate during and after the Reconstruction era. He represented Adams County, Mississippi.
F. Dora Wade was a teacher and state legislator in Mississippi. He represented Yazoo County in the Mississippi House of Representatives. He served as marshal of Yazoo City in 1870 and was documented as a teacher in that year's census.
John D. Webster was a state legislator, government official, and lawyer in Mississippi. He was born in Virginia and arrived in Mississippi in 1869. He was appointed a clerk of the Washington County, Mississippi circuit court in 1871 and was a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1872 and 1873. He was a candidate for Louisiana Superintendent of Education but lost the Republican nomination to Thomas W. Cardozo. He studied law and was admitted to the Mississippi bar in the late 1870s. During the American Civil War he served in the 54th Massachusetts regiment and was a "quarter-master sergeant". He was one of Mississippi's attendees at an 1872 Colored Convention.
Obediah Crew French was a state legislator in Mississippi. He was a Republican. He and other Republican legislators were ridiculed in the Natchez Democrat. Z. P. Landrum, a fellow legislator, called him a low-bred carpet bag cur. He served as Mississippi's commissioner for the U.S. Centennial.
Albert Johnson was a state legislator in Mississippi. He represented Warren County, Mississippi in the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1870 and 1871.
David Higgins was an African American preacher and state legislator in Mississippi between 1870 and 1872. He was a Republican.
References
- 1 2 "William H. Mallory – Against All Odds".
- 1 2 Freedom's Lawmakers by Eric Foner Louisina State University Press 1996 page 141
- ↑ "Vicksburg Daily Times, June 29, 1872 – Against All Odds".
- ↑ "New National Era, March 13, 1873 – Against All Odds".
- ↑ "New National Era, March 28, 1872 – Against All Odds".