Jefferson Franklin Long (March 3, 1836 – February 4, 1901) was a U.S. congressman from
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
. He was the second
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
sworn into the
U.S. House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
and the first African-American congressman from Georgia.
Long was the first African-American Representative to speak on the floor of the U.S. House,
opposing the Amnesty Bill that exempted former
Confederates serving in the House from swearing allegiance to the Constitution.
[Congressional Globe, House, 41st Cong., 3rd sess. (1 February 1871): 881–882.] He remained the only African American to represent Georgia until
Andrew Young
Andrew Jackson Young Jr. (born March 12, 1932) is an American politician, diplomat, and activist. Beginning his career as a pastor, Young was an early leader in the civil rights movement, serving as executive director of the Southern Christian L ...
was elected in 1972.
Biography
Long was born into slavery to an enslaved mother and a white father
near the city of
Knoxville
Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state's ...
in
Crawford County Crawford County is the name of eleven counties in the United States:
* Crawford County, Arkansas
* Crawford County, Georgia
* Crawford County, Illinois
* Crawford County, Indiana
* Crawford County, Iowa
* Crawford County, Kansas
* Crawford County, ...
, Georgia on March 3, 1836. He taught himself to read and write, an illegal act for slaves, while setting type for the newspaper in
Macon, Georgia
Macon ( ), officially Macon–Bibb County, is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia. Situated near the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is located southeast of Atlanta and lies near the geographic center of the state of Geo ...
. By 1860 Long had married Lucinda Carhart and had started a family. By the end of the American Civil War an emancipated Long had become a successful merchant tailor in Macon, Georgia.
Long had established himself as a prominent member of the
Republican Party in 1867
and was elected in 1870 as a Republican to the
Forty-first Congress to serve a term from January 16 to March 3, 1871. Georgia had no congressional representation from March 1869 to December 1870 due to the states failure to ratify the Fifteenth Amendment.
Long is best known for his speech on the floor of the House of Representatives in opposition of a measure to provide amnesty to former Confederates:
He was not a candidate for re-election in 1870 due to anti-Reconstruction efforts by the white-majority Georgia GOP,
but remained active in politics and serve as a delegate to the
Republican National Convention
The Republican National Convention (RNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1856 by the United States Republican Party. They are administered by the Republican National Committee. The goal of the Repu ...
from 1872 to 1880.
After his congressional term, Long returned to his tailoring business in Macon which he ran with one of his sons.
Long died from influenza on February 4, 1901, and was interred at Linwood Cemetery in Macon.
See also
*
List of African-American United States representatives
The United States House of Representatives has had 156 elected African-American members, of whom 150 have been representatives from U.S. states and 6 have been delegates from U.S. territories and the District of Columbia. The House of Represent ...
References
Bibliography
* Matthews, John M. "Jefferson Franklin Long: The Public Career of Georgia's First Black Congressman." ''Phylon 42'' (June 1981): 145–56.
* Logan, Rayford W. "Long, Jefferson Franklin." In ''Dictionary of American Negro Biography'', edited by Rayford W. Logan and Michael R. Winston, pp. 405. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1982.
* Hardwick, Grace.
Jefferson Franklin Long (1836-1901)" New Georgia Encyclopedia. 5 January 2017. Web. 28 March 2018.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Long, Jefferson F.
1836 births
1901 deaths
African-American people in Georgia (U.S. state) politics
African-American members of the United States House of Representatives
19th-century American slaves
Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Georgia (U.S. state)
People from Crawford County, Georgia
19th-century American politicians
African-American politicians during the Reconstruction Era
American tailors