Simon P. Coker was a farmer who served in the

South Carolina House of Representatives The South Carolina House of Representatives is the lower house of the South Carolina General Assembly. It consists of 124 representatives elected to two-year terms at the same time as U.S. congressional elections. Unlike many legislatures, seati ...

from 1874 until his assassination in 1876. He represented

Barnwell County, South Carolina Barnwell County is a county in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, its population was 20,589. Barnwell County is part of the Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is located in the Central Savann ...

. He was assassinated by white supremacists in 1876 during the

Ellenton massacre The Ellenton riot or Ellenton massacre occurred in September 1876. Author Mark M. Smith concluded that there was one white and up to 100 blacks killed, with several white people wounded. While John S. Reynolds and Alfred B. Williams cite much lowe ...

in September 1876.Freedom's Lawmakers by

Eric Foner Eric Foner (; born February 7, 1943) is an American historian. He writes extensively on American political history, the history of freedom, the early history of the Republican Party, African-American biography, the American Civil War, Reconstru ...

Louisiana State University Press 1996 page 47 He was one of between thirty and fifty black republicans executed that day. Coker was shot in the head while praying for mercy. Future Governor of South Carolina,

Benjamin Tillman Benjamin Ryan Tillman (August 11, 1847 – July 3, 1918) was an American politician of the Democratic Party who served as governor of South Carolina from 1890 to 1894, and as a United States Senator from 1895 until his death in 1918. A whit ...

was present at the execution.

References

Republican Party members of the South Carolina House of Representatives People from Barnwell County, South Carolina Year of birth missing 1876 deaths Deaths by firearm in South Carolina Assassinated American politicians Farmers from South Carolina African-American state legislators in South Carolina African-American farmers African-American politicians during the Reconstruction Era 1870s assassinated politicians {{SouthCarolina-politician-stub

See also

References