Ezekiel Gillespie (May 31, 1818 – March 31, 1892) was an African-American civil rights and community leader who won a landmark case securing voting rights in Wisconsin. Gillespie was born a slave in

Canton, Mississippi Canton is a city in Madison County, Mississippi, Madison County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 13,189 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It is the county seat of Madison County, and situated in the northern part of th ...

or Greene County, Tennessee, probably the son of an African-American slave and her European-American slave owner. As a young man he purchased his own freedom for $800. He traveled to

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

, and soon moved to

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

, where he sold groceries and then worked as a railroad porter. He quickly became a leader in the African-American community. He operated a local branch of the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. T ...

, pushed Richard Allen to open Wisconsin's first African-American church, and also played a role in the

Joshua Glover __NOTOC__ Joshua Glover was a fugitive slave from St. Louis, Missouri, who sought asylum in Racine, Wisconsin, in 1852. Upon learning his whereabouts in 1854, slave owner Bennami Garland attempted to use the Fugitive Slave Act to recover him. Glov ...

controversy. In 1865, at the insistence of

Sherman Booth Sherman Miller Booth (September 25, 1812 – August 10, 1904) was an abolitionist, editor and politician in Wisconsin, and was instrumental in forming the Liberty Party, the Free Soil Party and the Republican Party. He became known nationally a ...

, Gillespie attempted to vote. He was denied a ballot, so he sued the Board of Elections. ''Gillespie v. Palmer'' went all the way to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The justices of the court sided with Gillespie, in his argument that Wisconsin voters had voted in favor of male African American suffrage in an 1849 referendum. He was the first Black voter in Wisconsin. Gillespie later moved to

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, where he died on March 31, 1892. His remains were brought back to Milwaukee to be buried in

Forest Home Cemetery Forest Home Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery located in the Lincoln Village neighborhood of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and is the final resting place of many of the city's famed beer barons, politicians and social elite. Both the cemetery and ...

alongside some of Milwaukee's most famous residents.Danny Benson
Ezekiel Gillespie: The Man Who Wanted to Vote
MKE's Memoirs.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gillespie, Ezekiel 1818 births 1892 deaths 19th-century American slaves Underground Railroad people African-American abolitionists People from Canton, Mississippi Burials in Wisconsin