George W. Albright (born 1846) 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 The Mississippi Senate is the upper house of the Mississippi Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Mississippi. The Senate, along with the lower Mississippi House of Representatives, convenes at the Mississippi State Capitol ...

from 1874 to 1879 during the end of the

Reconstruction Era The Reconstruction era was a period in American history following the American Civil War (1861–1865) and lasting until approximately the Compromise of 1877. During Reconstruction, attempts were made to rebuild the country after the bloo ...

. In 1873, Albright won his Senate seat by defeating the Democrat E. H. Crump, a leader in the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...

. After he was emancipated from slavery, Albright worked as a field hand. His father, who was sold to an owner in Texas shortly before the American Civil War, joined the Union Army, and was killed at the Battle of Vicksburg in Mississippi. During the War, Albright was a member of the Union League, which promoted loyalty to the Republican Party and spread news of the

Emancipation Proclamation The Emancipation Proclamation, officially Proclamation 95, was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the Civil War. The Proclamation changed the legal sta ...

among still enslaved people. After the war, he attended a school run by

Sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...

Nelson Gill. Albright married a white teacher and became a teacher himself. When he narrowly escaped with his life in a confrontation with Klansmen, Albright moved to Chicago, Kansas, and later Colorado. In 1937, in an interview with the

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

'' Daily Worker'' newspaper, he hailed

Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...

for nominating a Black man,

James W. Ford James W. “Jim” Ford (December 22, 18931957) was an activist, a politician, and the Vice-Presidential candidate for the Communist Party USA in the years 1932, 1936, and 1940. Ford was born in Alabama and later worked as a party organizer for ...

, for the vice-presidency in the

1936 presidential election The following elections occurred in the year 1936. Asia * 1936 Ceylonese State Council election Europe * 1936 Belgian general election * 1936 Bielsko municipal election * 1936 Danish Landsting election * 1936 Finnish parliamentary election * 19 ...

. In 2021, DeeDee Baldwin, a research librarian heading the Against All Odds archival history effort on African American legislators in Mississippi during and after the Reconstruction era and one of Albright's ancestors were part of a recorded talk and slide presentation.

References

1846 births 20th-century deaths Year of death missing African-American politicians during the Reconstruction Era African-American state legislators in Mississippi Schoolteachers from Mississippi People from Marshall County, Mississippi Republican Party Mississippi state senators Victims of the Ku Klux Klan 19th-century American slaves 20th-century African-American politicians African-American men in politics 20th-century American politicians Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi {{Mississippi-politician-stub

See also

References