Charles Oscar Harris
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Charles Oscar Harris (August 5, 1852 - October 8, 1913) was an American public official and state legislator in Alabama. He was born August 5, 1852, in
Tuskegee, Alabama Tuskegee () is a city in Macon County, Alabama, United States. It was founded and laid out in 1833 by General Thomas Simpson Woodward, a Creek War veteran under Andrew Jackson, and made the county seat that year. It was incorporated in 1843. ...
(or Georgia) and studied at
Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...
in Ohio and
Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commissi ...
in Washington D.C. He returned to Alabama and served in the
Alabama House of Representatives The Alabama State House of Representatives is the lower house of the Alabama Legislature, the state legislature of state of Alabama. The House is composed of 105 members representing an equal number of districts, with each constituency contai ...
in 1876 and 1877. He served as a Republican, and attended the Republican National Conventions as a delegate eights times. In March 1875 Harris along with other prominent African Americans form Montgomery purchased tickets to white-only seats in the local theatre in an attempt to test the
1875 Civil Rights Act The Civil Rights Act of 1875, sometimes called the Enforcement Act or the Force Act, was a United States federal law enacted during the Reconstruction era in response to civil rights violations against African Americans. The bill was passed by the ...
. Being duly denied the seats they took the issue to the courts. After his service to the legislature he had a long career as a mailing clerk serving under the terms of seven presidents and four postmasters. He died October 8, 1913, and had still been working as a clerk in the Montgomery postoffice. A historical marker is at his home site at 813 Adams Avenue in Montgomery, it was dedicated April 27, 2019. His descendants with the surname Hilyer passed as white.


See also

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African-American officeholders during and following the Reconstruction era 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, ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Charles Oscar 1852 births 1913 deaths African-American state legislators in Alabama People from Tuskegee, Alabama Oberlin College alumni Howard University alumni Alabama Republicans 20th-century African-American people