John Willis Menard (April 3, 1838 – October 8, 1893) was a federal government employee, poet, newspaper publisher and politician born in
Kaskaskia,
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
to parents who were
Louisiana Creoles
Louisiana Creoles (french: Créoles de la Louisiane, lou, Moun Kréyòl la Lwizyàn, es, Criollos de Luisiana) are people descended from the inhabitants of colonial Louisiana before it became a part of the United States during the period of bo ...
from
. After moving to New Orleans, on November 3, 1868, Menard was the first black man ever elected to the
United States 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 house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...
. His opponent contested his election, and opposition to his election prevented him from being seated in Congress.
Life and career
John Willlis Menard was born in 1838 in
Kaskaskia in
Randolph County Randolph County is the name of eight counties in the United States:
*Randolph County, Alabama
*Randolph County, Arkansas
*Randolph County, Georgia
*Randolph County, Illinois
*Randolph County, Indiana
*Randolph County, Missouri
*Randolph County, Nort ...
in southern
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
, to parents who were
free people of color
In the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, free people of color (French: ''gens de couleur libres''; Spanish: ''gente de color libre'') were primarily people of mixed African, European, and Native American descent who were not ...
. They were
Louisiana Creoles
Louisiana Creoles (french: Créoles de la Louisiane, lou, Moun Kréyòl la Lwizyàn, es, Criollos de Luisiana) are people descended from the inhabitants of colonial Louisiana before it became a part of the United States during the period of bo ...
from
, of mostly European and some African descent. He may have been related to
Michel Branamour Menard
Michel Branamour Menard (1805–1856) was a Canadians, Canadian-born trader and merchant, first active on the upper Mississippi River and later in Texas. He co-founded Galveston, Texas. He represented Galveston County, Texas, Galveston County i ...
, a
French-Canadian
French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fr ...
fur trade
The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the mos ...
r and a founder of
Galveston,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
. Menard attended school in
Sparta, Illinois
Sparta is a city in Randolph County, Illinois, United States. The population was 4,095 at the 2020 census.
The city was the principal filming location for the 1967 film '' In the Heat of the Night''.
Consumer ammunition manufacturer Underwood a ...
and
Ohio Central College, then Iberia College in
Iberia
The Iberian Peninsula (),
**
* Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica''
**
**
* french: Péninsule Ibérique
* mwl, Península Eibérica
* eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...
,
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
.
Menard married Lucy Samuels on December 30, 1859 in Madison County, Illinois. They had one daughter, Alice, born in 1861. Menard would later separate from his first wife when he traveled to Jamaica and the US Virgin Islands, where he met and married Elizabeth Mary, a union that led to two children.
During the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, Menard worked as a clerk in the
Department of the Interior
The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...
under President
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
. He was sent to
British Honduras in 1863 to investigate a proposed colony for newly freed
slave
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
s. After the war Menard settled in New Orleans.
Menard moved to New Orleans in 1865, establishing the newspaper, ''The Free South,'' later named ''The Radical Standard.'' In an 1868
special election to fill the unexpired term of
James Mann, a
Democrat
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
who had died in office, Menard was elected as a
Republican to represent
Louisiana's 2nd congressional district. He was denied the seat on the basis of an election challenge by the apparent loser, white Democrat Caleb S. Hunt. On February 27, 1869, Menard became the first African American to address the chamber.
When the House Committee on Elections failed to make a final determination on the election challenge, the case went before the entire House of Representatives. On February 27, 1869 it suspended its rules to allow both Menard and Hunt to address the chamber in support of their claims. Only Menard spoke. After Congress debated the issue, neither Menard nor Hunt could gain enough support to be seated. The vote to seat Hunt was 41 in favor to 137 against. Following this was a vote to send the matter back to the Committee on Elections so that it might take testimony on the validity of the election. Before the vote occurred, members amended the resolution so as to seat Menard until the outcome of the investigation. The vote in Menard's favor, to send it back for further investigation and to seat him in the meantime, failed 57 to 130, which meant that the House was not going to continue to investigate. Though the claim circulates that Congressman and future president
James A. Garfield
James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 4, 1881 until his death six months latertwo months after he was shot by an assassin. A lawyer and Civil War gene ...
purportedly suggested it was too early for an African American to be admitted to Congress, he did not make such a statement to the House when Menard gave his presentation and the roll call shows that he voted to seat Menard.
[United States Congress. ''The Congressional Globe'' Part 3. February 27, 1869, p. 1696.] Neither man was seated for the remainder of the final days of the 40th Congress.
Menard moved to
Jacksonville,
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
, where he was appointed to the
Florida House of Representatives
The Florida House of Representatives is the lower house of the Florida Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida, the Florida Senate being the upper house. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution of Florida, adopted ...
in 1874. He lost the next election, at a time when there was widespread intimidation of voters at elections and white Democratic efforts to suppress black voting.
["Menard, John Willis (1838-1893)"](_blank)
Black Past, 2 November 2012. That same year and again in 1877, Menard was elected as a
Duval County justice of the peace
A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...
.
Menard was a poet, the author of ''Lays in Summer Lands'' (1879). Menard was also the editor of the ''Florida News'' and the ''Southern Leader'' from 1882 to 1888.
Menard died in the
District of Columbia
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
and was buried at
Graceland Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
When Graceland closed in 1894, his remains were moved to nearby
Woodlawn Cemetery.
His daughter, Alice Menard, married
Thomas Van Renssalaer Gibbs
Thomas Van Renssalaer Gibbs (September 16, 1855 – October 31, 1898) was a member of the 1885 Florida Constitutional Convention, served in the Florida House of Representatives, and was a school administrator. He was nominated to West Point by R ...
, the son of
Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs
Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs, II (September 28, 1821 – August 14, 1874) was an American Presbyterian minister who served as Secretary of State and Superintendent of Public Instruction of Florida, and along with Josiah Thomas Walls, U.S. Congres ...
.
See also
*
List of African-American United States representatives
References
Bibliography
"John Willis Menard" John B. Cade Library at
Southern University
Southern University and A&M College (Southern University, Southern, SUBR or SU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is the largest historically black college or university (HBCU) in Louisiana, a ...
.
*Canter Brown, Jr. ''Florida's Black Public Officials, 1867–1924.'' Tuscaloosa and London: The University of Alabama Press, 1998.
*Menard, E. "John Willis Menard: First Negro Elected to U.S. Congress." ''Negro History Bulletin.'' 28 (December 1964), 53–54.
* Menard, John Willis. (2006), ''
Encyclopædia Britannica
The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various time ...
'', Retrieved October 19, 2006, from
Encyclopædia Britannica
The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various time ...
Online: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9051962
{{DEFAULTSORT:Menard, John Willis
1838 births
1893 deaths
19th-century American journalists
19th-century American judges
19th-century American politicians
19th-century male writers
African-American members of the United States House of Representatives
African-American politicians during the Reconstruction Era
African-American state legislators in Florida
American colonization movement
American justices of the peace
American male journalists
Journalists from Illinois
Louisiana Creole people
Republican Party members of the Florida House of Representatives
People from Jacksonville, Florida
People from Kaskaskia, Illinois
Politicians from New Orleans
Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Louisiana
Writers from Florida
Writers from Illinois
Writers from New Orleans