Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback (May 10, 1837 – December 21, 1921) was an American publisher, politician, and
Union
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
Army officer. Pinchback 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 ...
(after
Oscar Dunn
Oscar James Dunn (1822 – November 22, 1871) served as a Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana during the era of Reconstruction and was the first African American to act as governor of a U.S. state.
In 1868, Dunn became the first elected black ...
) to serve as governor and lieutenant governor of a
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...
. A
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
, Pinchback served as acting governor of Louisiana from December 9, 1872, to January 13, 1873. He was one of the most prominent
African-American officeholders during 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 ...
.
Pinchback was born
free
Free may refer to:
Concept
* Freedom, having the ability to do something, without having to obey anyone/anything
* Freethought, a position that beliefs should be formed only on the basis of logic, reason, and empiricism
* Emancipate, to procur ...
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 ...
, to Eliza Stewart and her master, William Pinchback, a
white
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
planter. His father raised the younger Pinchback and his siblings as his own children on his large plantation in
Mississippi
Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
. After the death of his father in 1848, his mother took Pinchback and siblings to the
free state of
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 ...
to ensure their continued freedom. After the start of 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 ...
, Pinchback traveled to Union-occupied
. There he raised several companies for the
1st Louisiana Native Guard, and became one of the few African Americans commissioned as officers in the Union Army.
Pinchback remained in New Orleans after the Civil War, becoming active in Republican politics. He won election to the
Louisiana State Senate
The Louisiana State Senate (french: Sénat de Louisiane) is the upper house of the state legislature of Louisiana. All senators serve four-year terms and are assigned to multiple committees.
Composition
The Louisiana State Senate is compose ...
in 1868 and became the
president pro tempore
A president pro tempore or speaker pro tempore is a constitutionally recognized officer of a legislative body who presides over the chamber in the absence of the normal presiding officer. The phrase ''pro tempore'' is Latin "for the time being". ...
of the state senate. He became the acting
Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana
The lieutenant governor of Louisiana (french: Lieutenant-Gouverneur de la Louisiane) is the second highest state office in Louisiana. The current lieutenant governor is Billy Nungesser, a Republican Party (United States), Republican. The lieuten ...
following the death of
Oscar Dunn
Oscar James Dunn (1822 – November 22, 1871) served as a Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana during the era of Reconstruction and was the first African American to act as governor of a U.S. state.
In 1868, Dunn became the first elected black ...
in 1871 and briefly served as acting governor of Louisiana after
Henry C. Warmoth was impeached. After the contested
1872 Louisiana gubernatorial election, Republican legislators elected Pinchback to the
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
. Due to the controversy over the 1872 elections in the state, which were challenged by white Democrats, Pinchback was never seated in Congress.
Pinchback served as a delegate to the 1879 Louisiana constitutional convention, where he helped gain support for the founding of
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 ...
. In a Republican federal appointment, he served as the surveyor of US customs of New Orleans from 1882 to 1885. Later he worked with other leading men of color to challenge the segregation of Louisiana's public transportation system, leading to the
Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
case of ''
Plessy v. Ferguson
''Plessy v. Ferguson'', 163 U.S. 537 (1896), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in which the Court ruled that racial segregation laws did not violate the U.S. Constitution as long as the facilities for each race were equal in quality ...
.'' To escape increasing racial oppression, he moved with his family to
Washington, D.C.
)
, 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, ...
in 1892, where they were among the elite people of color. He died there in 1921.
Early life
Pinckney Benton Stewart was born free in May 1837 in
Macon,
Bibb County,
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 ...
. His parents were Eliza Stewart, a former
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 ...
, and Major William Pinchback, a white planter and his mother's former master. William Pinchback, who also had a legal white family,
freed Eliza and her two surviving children in 1836; she had borne six by that point and two had survived.
[Cynthia Earl Kerman, ''The Lives of Jean Toomer: A Hunger for Wholeness''](_blank)
LSU Press, 1989, pp. 15–18 She had four more children with Pinchback, all born into freedom under Georgia law because she was free.
Pinckney Stewart's parents were of diverse ethnic origins; Eliza Stewart was classified as
mulatto
(, ) is a racial classification to refer to people of mixed African and European ancestry. Its use is considered outdated and offensive in several languages, including English and Dutch, whereas in languages such as Spanish and Portuguese is ...
and had
African
African or Africans may refer to:
* Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa:
** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa
*** Ethn ...
,
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...
, Welsh, and German ancestry. William Pinchback was ethnic European-American, of
Scots-Irish,
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
, and
German American
German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...
ancestry. Shortly after Pinckney's birth, his father William purchased a much larger
plantation
A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...
in
Mississippi
Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
, and he moved there with both his white and mixed-race families.
Pinckney Benton Stewart and his siblings were considered the "natural" (or illegitimate) children of their father, but they were brought up in relatively affluent surroundings. He treated them as his own, with privileges similar to the
white
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
children on his plantation. In 1846, Pinchback sent the 9-year-old Pinckney and his older brother Napoleon north for education at a private academy,
Gilmore High School
Gilmore High School, also called Cincinnati High School, was established by Rev. Hiram S. Gilmore in 1844 to provide secondary education for African-American students. Students at the school in Cincinnati, Ohio, came from across the country, incl ...
in
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
,
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 ...
.
In 1848, when Pinckney was eleven, his father died.
Fearful that the other Pinchback relatives might try to claim her children as slaves, Eliza Stewart fled with the children to Cincinnati in the
free state of Ohio. Napoleon, at 18, helped to keep the family together but broke down under the responsibility.
At 12, Pinckney left school and began to work as a cabin boy on river and canal boats to help his family. For a while he lived in
Terre Haute, Indiana
Terre Haute ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Vigo County, Indiana, United States, about 5 miles east of the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 60,785 and its metropolitan area had a ...
, where he worked as a hotel porter. During that time, he still identified as Pinckney B. Stewart. He did not take his father's surname of Pinchback until after the end of the
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
.
Marriage and family
In 1860 at the age of 23, Stewart married Emily Hawthorne, a
free woman of color.
Like Stewart, she was "practically white" in appearance, meaning she had a high proportion of European ancestors.
They had six children: Pinckney Napoleon in 1862, Bismarck in 1864, Nina in 1866, and Walter Alexander in 1868. Two others died young. Pinckney named one son Bismarck because of his admiration for statesman
Otto von Bismarck
Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (, ; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman and diplomat. From his origins in the upper class of J ...
of Germany, whom he considered to be one of the world's greatest men. Pinckney's mother Eliza Stewart lived with Pinckney and his family from 1867 until her death in 1884.
[Kerman (1989), ''The Lives of Jean Toomer'', p. 23]
They had a fine house in New Orleans. Usually, in the summer, the whole family traveled to
Saratoga Springs, New York
Saratoga Springs is a city in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 28,491 at the 2020 census. The name reflects the presence of mineral springs in the area, which has made Saratoga a popular resort destination for over 2 ...
, a resort town in upstate, where they would stay for several weeks. Pinchback liked to gamble on the
horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic p ...
held there during the summer season.
Military service and Civil War
The Civil War began the following year, and Stewart decided to fight on the side of the Union. In 1862, he made his way to
, which had just been captured by the Union Army. He raised several companies for the Union's all-black
1st Louisiana Native Guards Regiment, which was garrisoned in the city. A minority of the men were Louisiana
free men of color, part of the educated class before the war who had participated in the state militia. Most of the Guards were former slaves, who had escaped to join the Union forces and gain freedom.
Commissioned a
captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
, Stewart was one of the Union Army's few commissioned officers of African-American ancestry. Like Stewart, the officers were mostly of
mixed race. Most of them were drawn from the class of
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 ...
in New Orleans established before the war; unlike him, they were usually of colonial French and African descent. He became Company Commander of Company A,
2nd Louisiana Regiment Native Guard Infantry
The 2nd Louisiana Regiment Native Guard Infantry was a regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Native Guard
The Regiment was organized in New Orleans, Louisiana, in October 1862, and assigned to the defenses of New Orleans to De ...
, made up mostly of refugee slaves. (It was later reformed as the 74th US Colored Infantry Regiment, of the
United States Colored Troops
The United States Colored Troops (USCT) were regiments in the United States Army composed primarily of African-American (colored) soldiers, although members of other minority groups also served within the units. They were first recruited during ...
.)
Passed over twice for promotion and tired of the prejudice he encountered from white officers, Stewart resigned his commission in 1863. In a letter of April 30, 1863, his married sister Adeline B. Saffold wrote to him from
Sidney, Ohio
Sidney is a city in Shelby County, Ohio, located approximately 36 mi (58 km) north of Dayton and 100 mi (161 km) south of Toledo. The population was 20,421 at the time of the 2020 census. It is named after English poet Phili ...
, urging him to follow her example and enter the white world:
If I were you, Pink, I would not let my ambition die. I would seek to rise and not in that class either but I would take my position in the world as a white man as you are and let the other go for be assured of this as the other you will never get your rights. ...
After the war, Stewart and his wife moved to
Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...
.
Political career
After the war in New Orleans, Stewart took his father's surname of Pinchback. He became active in the
Republican Party. The exact moment Pinchback decided to enter politics is described by George Devol in his book ''Forty Years a Gambler on the Mississippi.'' In 1867, Pinchback organized the Fourth Ward Republican Club in New Orleans soon after Congress passed the
Reconstruction Acts
The Reconstruction Acts, or the Military Reconstruction Acts, (March 2, 1867, 14 Stat. 428-430, c.153; March 23, 1867, 15 Stat. 2-5, c.6; July 19, 1867, 15 Stat. 14-16, c.30; and March 11, 1868, 15 Stat. 41, c.25) were four statutes passed duri ...
. That year, he was elected as a delegate to the constitutional convention.
In 1868 Pinchback was elected as a
State Senator
A state senator is a member of a state's senate in the bicameral legislature of 49 U.S. states, or a member of the unicameral Nebraska Legislature.
Description
A state senator is a member of an upper house in the bicameral legislatures of 49 U ...
. He was elected as senate president ''
pro tempore
''Pro tempore'' (), abbreviated ''pro tem'' or ''p.t.'', is a Latin phrase which best translates to "for the time being" in English. This phrase is often used to describe a person who acts as a ''locum tenens'' (placeholder) in the absence of ...
''; seven of 36 seats in the Senate were held by men of color. The House had 42 representatives of African-American descent, comprising half the seats. (At the time, the populations of African Americans, including former free people of color, and whites in the state were nearly equal.)
As Senate president pro tempore, in 1871 Pinchback succeeded to the position as acting
lieutenant governor
A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...
upon the death of
Oscar Dunn
Oscar James Dunn (1822 – November 22, 1871) served as a Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana during the era of Reconstruction and was the first African American to act as governor of a U.S. state.
In 1868, Dunn became the first elected black ...
, the first elected
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
lieutenant governor of a US state.
Pinchback contributed further to the political discussion with the founding of the bi-weekly newspaper, the ''
Louisianian
''Louisianian'', also referred to as ''New Orleans Louisianian'' and ''The Louisianian'' was a semi-weekly newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Louisianian was founded in 1870 by P. B. S. Pinchback (1837–1921), an African-American ...
'' in 1870. He worked as an editor there until 1872. Later, in 1874, he returned to be editor and in 1878 he became editor-in-chief, though he allowed students from Straight University (later part of
Dillard University
Dillard University is a private, historically black university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded in 1930 and incorporating earlier institutions founded as early as 1869 after the American Civil War, it is affiliated with the United Church of Ch ...
). The paper's motto was "Republican at all times, and under all circumstances." Publication of the paper ended in 1882.
He was appointed as director of the New Orleans public schools. Statewide public schools were established for the first time by the new state legislature 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 ...
. Pinchback had a long-standing interest in education of blacks and was appointed to the
Louisiana State Board of Education
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is border ...
, where he served from March 18, 1871, until March, 1877.
[Simmons, William J., and Henry McNeal Turner. ''Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising.'' GM Rewell & Company, 1887. pp. 759–781]
In 1872, the legislature filed
impeachment
Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. It may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements.
In ...
charges against the incumbent Republican governor,
Henry Clay Warmoth
Henry Clay Warmoth (May 9, 1842 – September 30, 1931) was an American attorney and veteran Civil War officer in the Union Army who was elected governor and state representative of Louisiana. A Republican, he was 26 years old when elected as 23 ...
, over disputes over certifying returns of the disputed gubernatorial election, in which both Democrat
John McEnery
John McEnery (1 November 1943 – 12 April 2019) was an English actor and writer.
Born in Birmingham, he trained (1962–1964) at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, playing, among others, Mosca in Ben Jonson's ''Volpone'' and Gaveston ...
and Republican
William Kellogg claimed victory. Trying to support a centrist fusion government at a time of divisions among Republicans, Warmoth had supported his appointed return board, which certified McEnery as winner. Republicans opposed this outcome and appointed their own returns board, which certified Kellogg. The election had been marked by violence and fraud.
Pinchback rose to acting governor in Warmoth's stead by way of article 53 of the Louisiana Constitution of 1868, which held that the lieutenant governor would assume the duties of the governor "in case of impeachment of the Governor, his removal from office, death . . . resignation or absence from the state." Pinchback was sworn in as the
first governor of African descent in the history of the United States. He took the oath as acting governor on December 9, 1872 and served for about six weeks, until the end of Warmoth's term.
Warmoth was not convicted, and the charges were eventually dropped by the legislature.
Also in 1872, at a national convention of African-American politicians, Pinchback had a public disagreement with
Jeremiah Haralson
Jeremiah Haralson (April 1, 1846 – 1916?), was a politician from Alabama who served as a state legislator and was among the first ten African-American United States Congressmen. Born into slavery in Columbus, Georgia, Haralson became self-educ ...
of Alabama.
James T. Rapier
James Thomas Rapier (November 13, 1837 – May 31, 1883) was a politician from Alabama during the Reconstruction Era. He served as a United States representative from Alabama, for one term from 1873 until 1875. Born free in Alabama, he went to sc ...
, also of Alabama, submitted a motion that the convention condemn all Republicans who had opposed President
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...
in that year's election. Haralson supported the motion, but Pinchback opposed it because Senator
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner (January 6, 1811March 11, 1874) was an American statesman and United States Senator from Massachusetts. As an academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the anti-slavery forces in the state and a leader of th ...
of Massachusetts would have been condemned for opposing Grant. Pinchback admired Sumner as a lifelong anti-slavery fighter.
1870s congressional elections
After his brief period in executive office, Pinchback remained active in politics and public service in Louisiana. From 1868, campaigns and elections in Louisiana were increasingly marked by Democratic violence. Historian George C. Rable described the
White League
The White League, also known as the White Man's League, was a white paramilitary terrorist organization started in the Southern United States in 1874 to intimidate freedmen into not voting and prevent Republican Party political organizing. Its f ...
, a
paramilitary
A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...
group started in 1874, as the "military arm of the Democratic Party." The paramilitary group used intimidation and violence to suppress black voting and run Republicans out of office.
As an outcome of the controversial 1872 election, four US seats from Louisiana were also contested, including Pinchback's seat in the
at-large
At large (''before a noun'': at-large) is a description for members of a governing body who are elected or appointed to represent a whole membership or population (notably a city, county, state, province, nation, club or association), rather than ...
position. In early 1873, both the Republican William Kellogg-allied state legislators, who had a slight majority, and the Democrat John McEnery-allied legislators elected US Senators. Pinchback was elected by the Republicans and presented the Senate with his credentials. The Democratic candidate also presented credentials. As the 1872 gubernatorial contest had involved the national government, Congress was initially reluctant to assess these issues. The contested claim was not settled for years, at a time when Democrats controlled Congress.
Holding out for the Senate seat, Pinchback conceded the House seat to his Democratic opponent. The 45th Congress (1877–1879), which finally decided the issue, had a Democratic majority and voted against Pinchback. The Senate awarded him compensation of $16,000 for his salary and mileage after his protracted struggle to take his seat.
[Kent Anderson Leslie and Willard B. Gatewood Jr. "'This Father of Mine ... a Sort of Mystery': Jean Toomer's Georgia Heritage"](_blank)
''Georgia Historical Quarterly'' 77 (winter 1993)
In his memoir of Reconstruction, former Louisiana governor
Henry Clay Warmoth
Henry Clay Warmoth (May 9, 1842 – September 30, 1931) was an American attorney and veteran Civil War officer in the Union Army who was elected governor and state representative of Louisiana. A Republican, he was 26 years old when elected as 23 ...
wrote that the federal government was reluctant to seat people representing the Kellogg-Pinchback faction. He had a personal interest, as he had been forced out of Louisiana after allying with white conservatives in the 1872 election certification.
[Henry Clay Warmoth, ''War, Politics, and Reconstruction: Stormy Days in Louisiana'', "Introduction" by John C. Rodrigue](_blank)
Univ of South Carolina Press, 1930/2006 Historian John C. Rodrigue notes that the Committee on Elections was dealing with its own internal issues. It had accepted Pinchback's claim to the House seat, but he was holding out for the Senate seat. Complications arose after the Democrats took control of the next Congress and upheld election of his opponent.
Overall, the mid- to late 1870s marked an acceleration of the reversal of the political gains that African Americans in Louisiana had achieved since the end of the Civil War. In 1877, Democrats fully regained control of the state legislature after the withdrawal of federal troops, as a result of a national Democratic compromise marking the end of Reconstruction. Republican blacks continued to be elected to state and local offices, but elections were accompanied by violence and fraud. Most blacks were totally
disfranchised by a new state constitution in 1898 and were effectively excluded from politics for decades.
Pinchback served as a delegate to the 1879 state constitutional convention; he and two other Republican African-American delegates,
Theophile T. Allain, and
Henry Demas
Henry Demas (1848–1900) was an enslaved African American who became a constable, state legislator, civil rights activist, and organizer of Southern University in Louisiana during the Reconstruction era.
Early life
Demas was born into slavery o ...
, were credited with gaining support to establish
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 ...
, a
historically black college
Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. Mo ...
in
, which was chartered in 1880. Pinchback was appointed as a member of Southern University's Board of Trustees (later redesignated the Board of Supervisors). The college relocated to the capital,
Baton Rouge
Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-sma ...
, in 1914. He was a delegate to the
1880 Republican National Convention
The 1880 Republican National Convention convened from June 2 to June 8, 1880, at the Interstate Exposition Building in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Delegates nominated James A. Garfield of Ohio and Chester A. Arthur of New York as the offic ...
.
In 1882, the national Republican administration appointed Pinchback as surveyor of
customs
Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out of a country. Traditionally, customs ...
in New Orleans, a politically significant position in which he served until 1885.
It was his last political position.
Later life
In 1885, Pinchback studied law in New Orleans at
Straight University
Straight University, after 1915 Straight College, was a historically black college that operated between 1868 and 1934 in New Orleans, Louisiana. After struggling with financial difficulties, it was merged with New Orleans University to form ...
, a
historically black college
Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. Mo ...
later known as
Dillard University
Dillard University is a private, historically black university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded in 1930 and incorporating earlier institutions founded as early as 1869 after the American Civil War, it is affiliated with the United Church of Ch ...
. He was admitted to the Louisiana
bar
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
* Chocolate bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud
* Bar (u ...
in 1886, but never practiced.
[
Pinchback moved with his family to ]Washington, D.C.
)
, 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, ...
, in 1892. Wealthy from his positions and settlement on the Senate seat, he had a large mansion built off Fourteenth Street near the Chinese embassy. At the time, his oldest son, Pinckney Pinchback, was established as a pharmacist in Philadelphia; the younger three ranged in age from 22 to 26 and were still living at home. The Pinchback family was part of the mixed-race
Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-ethn ...
elite in Washington; people in the group had generally been free before the war and often were educated and had acquired property. The ''Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' covered Pinchback's housewarming reception and his many high-ranking guests.
Later, Pinchback worked for a time in New York as a US Marshal
Marshal is a term used in several official titles in various branches of society. As marshals became trusted members of the courts of Medieval Europe, the title grew in reputation. During the last few centuries, it has been used for elevated o ...
.[
By his death in 1921 in Washington, D.C., Pinchback was little known politically.][ His body was returned to New Orleans, where he was interred in ]Metairie Cemetery
Metairie Cemetery is a cemetery in southeastern Louisiana. The name has caused some people to mistakenly presume that the cemetery is located in Metairie, Louisiana, but it is located within the New Orleans city limits, on Metairie Road (and f ...
.
Legacy
Pinchback and his wife Nina were the maternal grandparents of Jean Toomer
Jean Toomer (born Nathan Pinchback Toomer; December 26, 1894 – March 30, 1967) was an American poet and novelist commonly associated with the Harlem Renaissance, though he actively resisted the association, and with modernism. His reputatio ...
. Their daughter Nina Pinchback Toomer returned to live with her parents after her husband abandoned her when Jean was an infant. They helped raise him, and he started school in Washington, D.C.. After his mother remarried, they moved to New Rochelle, New York. He returned to his grandparents after his mother died in 1909, and went to high school at the academic M Street School. As an adult, Toomer became a poet and writer who was prominent as a modernist in New York during the Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the t ...
.
See also
* List of African-American officeholders during Reconstruction
More than 1,500 African American officeholders served during the Reconstruction era (1865–1877) after passage of the Reconstruction Acts in 1867 and 1868 as well as in the years after Reconstruction before white supremacy, disenfranchisement, a ...
* 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 ...
* List of African-American United States senators
This is a list of African Americans who have served in the United States Senate. The Senate has had eleven African-American elected or appointed officeholders. Two each served during both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Of the eight Afri ...
*
* David Paterson
David Alexander Paterson (born May 20, 1954) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 55th governor of New York, succeeding Eliot Spitzer and serving out nearly three years of Spitzer's term from March 2008 to December 2010. A ...
* Deval Patrick
Deval Laurdine Patrick (born July 31, 1956) is an American politician, civil rights lawyer, author, and businessman who served as the 71st governor of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015. He was first elected in 2006, succeeding Mitt Romney, who ...
* Douglas Wilder
Lawrence Douglas Wilder (born January 17, 1931) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 66th Governor of Virginia from 1990 to 1994. He was the first African American to serve as governor of a U.S. state since the Reconstruction ...
References
Further reading
* Dray, Philip. ''Capitol men: the epic story of Reconstruction through the lives of the first Black congressmen'' (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010).
* Grosz, Agnes Smith, "The Political Career of Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback," ''Louisiana Historical Quarterly'', XXVII (1944)
* Haskins, James. ''Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback''(New York: Macmillan, 1973)
*
*
* ''Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback Papers,'' Manuscript Department, Moorland-Spingarm Research Center, Howard University, Washington, D.C., 3 includes "Here under the protecting care" speech quoted by Nicholas Lemann in ''Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War''
''Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising'', by Rev. William J. Simmons, D. D., President of the State University, Louisville, Kentucky (1887)
* Paterson, David "Black, Blind, & In Charge: A Story of Visionary Leadership and Overcoming Adversity."Skyhorse Publishing. New York, New York, 2020
*
External links
State of Louisiana – Biography
Cemetery Memorial
by La-Cemeteries
*
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pinchback, P. B. S.
1837 births
1921 deaths
19th-century Methodists
African-American Methodists
African-American politicians during the Reconstruction Era
African-American state governors of the United States
African-American state legislators in Louisiana
African Americans in the American Civil War
Methodists from Louisiana
American people of German descent
American people of Scotch-Irish descent
American people of Welsh descent
Republican Party governors of Louisiana
Louisiana lawyers
Republican Party Louisiana state senators
People from Macon, Georgia
People of Louisiana in the American Civil War
People of the African Methodist Episcopal church
Politicians from Cincinnati
Politicians from New Orleans
Straight University alumni
United States Marshals
Union Army officers