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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.
Benjamin Franklin Randolph was an American educator, spiritual advisor, newspaper editor who served as a South Carolina state senator during the Reconstruction Era. Randolph was selected to be one of the first African American Electors in the United States at the 1868 Republican National Convention for the Ulysses Grant Republican presidential ticket. Randolph also served as the chair of the state Republican Party Central Committee. He was a delegate to the 1868 South Carolina Constitutional Convention, where he played an important role in establishing the first universal public education system in the state, and in granting for the first time the right to vote to black men and non-property owning European-American men. On October 16, 1868, Randolph was assassinated by members of the Ku Klux Klan.
Lucius Wimbush was a state legislator, businessman, and public official. After being freed from slavery, he became a state senator during the Reconstruction Era in South Carolina. Wimbush was elected from Chester County and was secretary of the Chester Union League. He is buried in Randolph Cemetery where eight other Reconstruction era legislators were also interred.
Joseph Crews was a Reconstruction militia leader who served as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1874 until his assassination in 1875. He was the state's highest-ranking military official in the 1870s and was put in charge of the state militia whose main purpose was to protect African-American voters. African-Americans were 58.9% of the population of South Carolina in 1870. He was reportedly murdered by Democrats in the run-up to the 1876 South Carolina gubernatorial election.
William Beverly Nash was a barber, shoe shine, porter, waiter, and state senator in South Carolina. An African American, Nash was born enslaved in Virginia, Nash gained his freedom at the age of 43 with the passage of the 13th Amendment. After the American Civil War, he became a state legislator during the Reconstruction Era. He was instrumental in drafting South Carolina's Constitution of 1868, and held several committee positions in the state government over his career. He held his office for 21 years before resigning.
Samuel Benjamin Thompson was a lawyer, judicial official, and Reconstruction Era politician in South Carolina.
Edward Charles Mickey was a Reconstruction era legislator in South Carolina. His occupation was listed as tailor and minister. He served in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1868 until 1872. He was one of many African American legislators who served as Republicans in South Carolina's House and Senate in 1868. He represented Charleston County. He was born in Charleston, South Carolina.
William Edward Rose (1813–1893) founded the Rose Hotel, was a state senator, and a railroad president in South Carolina. He was elected to the South Carolina State Senate in 1868 during the Reconstruction era. He represented York County, South Carolina in the 48th general assembly, and in the 49th.
Huston J. Lomax was a legislator in South Carolina during the Reconstruction era. He was a delegate to the 1868 South Carolina Constitutional Convention, where he represented Abbeville County. He was elected to represent Abbeville County in the South Carolina Senate in 1870 but died before it convened. James Sproull Cothran was elected to replace him, but the election was protested and he was prevented from taking office.
Sancho Saunders was a member of South Carolina's House of Representatives during the Reconstruction era. He represented Chester County, South Carolina. He was documented as a literate Baptist minister who was a slave before the American Civil War. He was African American. His photograph was included in a montage of Radical Republican South Carolina legislators.
Benjamin Antony Boseman Jr., sometimes misspelled Bozeman, was an African-American physician and state legislator. He was born in Troy, New York, son of Benjamin and Annaretta Boseman, the oldest of five children. In the 1860 U.S. Census he is described as mulatto. His father was a steward on a steamboat, and then sutler.
Joseph A. Greene was a state senator in South Carolina during the Reconstruction era, representing Orangeburg County in the 48th and 49th South Carolina General Assemblies from 1868 till 1871.
William R. Jervey was a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives during the Reconstruction era, and then a state senator.
Ebenezer (Eben) Hayes was a farmer, Methodist preacher and a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, during the Reconstruction era.
Henry W. Webb was a political leader in Reconstruction era South Carolina. He was a delegate to the South Carolina Constitutional Convention of 1868 and elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives the same year.
James Alfred Bowley was an American teacher, lawyer, judge, school commissioner, politician, and newspaper publisher in South Carolina. He escaped slavery in Maryland with help from Harriet Tubman. He served in the U.S. Navy. After the American Civil War he moved to Georgetown, South Carolina, taught in schools and was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives. His former home in Georgetown, where he lived with his wife Laura Clark (1854–1932), is a historic site.
Samuel J. Keith was a state representative in South Carolina. He was a carpenter. He served in the Confederate Army. He was a Republican and served in the South Carolina House of Representatives during the Reconstruction era from 1870 to 1877. He represented Darlington County, South Carolina. In 1878 he became a Democrat.
On the evening of October 20, 1870, Wade Perrin, a Republican Party member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, was assassinated by a group of white men affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan. The murder took place in present-day Joanna, South Carolina, in rural southeastern Laurens County. Perrin had been re-elected to a second term in the legislature the day before, but riots in and around Laurens County on the day of the election spurred violence towards at least a dozen Republican members-elect, most of them African Americans. After being caught by the men and being made to dance, sing, and pray, they ordered Perrin to run away, at which point he was shot dead. He was found lying in the street with his pockets turned inside out. Perrin was honored with a funeral service held in the House chambers on January 31, 1871, with the House and State Senate both present. A total of six men were ultimately charged for Perrin's murder, as well as the murders of several other black legislators under similar circumstances.
Robert Simmons was a farmer and state legislator who served in the South Carolina State Senate from 1882 until 1886.
William Cawthorn was a state legislator in North Carolina. He served in the North Carolina House of Representatives. He represented Warren County, North Carolina. He served two terms from 1868 to 1872. John A. Hyman was the state senator from Warren County.
References
- 1 2 3 4 National register of Historic Places - Randolph Cemetery. December 12, 1994. Retrieved May 31, 2020.
- 1 2 3 "A Small Sample Of Burials At Randolph Cemetery: What Their Stories Tell Us About The Cemetery And African American Life In Columbia" (PDF). chicora.org. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
- 1 2 "South Carolina During the Late 1800s - The 48th General Assembly (1868-1870)". www.carolana.com. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
- 1 2 "South Carolina During the Late 1800s - The 49th General Assembly (1870-1872)". www.carolana.com. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
- ↑ Humanities, National Endowment for the (July 7, 1868). "The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, July 07, 1868, Image 1" . Retrieved June 8, 2020.
- ↑ "30 Aug 1870, Page 3 - The Daily Phoenix at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
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