Fitz William McMaster (March 23, 1826 – September 10, 1899) was an American lawyer and politician.

Early life and career

McMaster was born in Fairfield, South Carolina, and was educated at South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina). He earned the rank of colonel in the army of the Confederate States of America. Following the conclusion of the Civil War and during

Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *'' Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...

, McMaster worked as a lawyer. He served as the defense attorney for Edward T. Avery, one of nearly five hundred white men indicted for affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan.

Politics and civic life

After the fraudulent and violent election of governor

Wade Hampton III Wade Hampton III (March 28, 1818April 11, 1902) was an American military officer who served the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War and later a politician from South Carolina. He came from a wealthy planter family, and ...

ended

, McMaster served as a judge, state representative, and state senator in the Democrat-led government that established Jim Crow. His advocacy strengthened and expanded the state’s segregated public education system begun during Reconstruction. In the 1880s, he rallied politicians to fund Columbia’s schools and helped to found the Winthrop Normal and Industrial College of South Carolina (now

Winthrop University Winthrop University is a public university in Rock Hill, South Carolina. It was founded in 1886 by David Bancroft Johnson, who served as the superintendent of Columbia, South Carolina, schools. He received a grant from Robert Charles Winthrop, ...

) to train white teachers. He was also mayor of Columbia and an active member of Camp Hampton, a Civil War veterans organization that promoted the

Lost Cause The Lost Cause of the Confederacy (or simply Lost Cause) is an American pseudohistorical negationist mythology that claims the cause of the Confederate States during the American Civil War was just, heroic, and not centered on slavery. Firs ...

. McMaster died in 1899.

Legacy

The Columbia, South Carolina, school administration named a grammar school building located at the corner of Senate and Pickens Streets in Columbia after McMaster in 1911.

McMaster School The McMaster School, built in 1911, is an historic building located at 1106 Pickens Street on the corner of Senate Street in Columbia, South Carolina. It was designed by noted Columbia architect William Augustus Edwards of the firm of Edwards and ...

operated until South Carolina reorganized its school system in 1956. The building has been part of the University of South Carolina's campus since 1960 and how houses th
School of Visual Art and Design
South Carolina’s current governor,

Henry McMaster Henry Dargan McMaster (born May 27, 1947) is an American politician and attorney serving as the 117th governor of South Carolina since January 24, 2017. He is a member of the Republican Party. McMaster worked for U.S. senator Strom Thurmond, in ...

, is a descendant of Fitz William McMaster.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McMaster, Fitz William Democratic Party South Carolina state senators 19th-century American politicians South Carolina lawyers 19th-century American lawyers 1826 births 1899 deaths