P. B. S. Pinchback

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P. B. S. Pinchback
Image:P. B. S. Pinchback - Brady-Handy.jpg
25th Governor of Louisiana
In office December 9, 1872 – January 13, 1873
Lieutenant(s)	none
Preceded by	Henry C. Warmoth
Succeeded by	John McEnery and William P. Kellogg (election contested)
Born	May 10 1837(1837-05-10) Macon, Georgia
Died	December 21 1921 (aged 84) Washington, DC
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Nina Emily
Religion	African Methodist Episcopal

Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback (May 10, 1837 – December 21, 1921) was the first African American to become governor of a U.S. state. He was also the first non-white (biracial) governor of Louisiana. Pinchback, a Republican, served as the governor of Louisiana for thirty-five days, from December 9, 1872, to January 13, 1873.

Nicholas Lemann, in Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War, described Pinchback as "an outsized figure: newspaper publisher, gambler, orator, speculator, dandy, mountebank -- served for a few months as the state's governor and claimed seats in both houses of Congress following disputed elections but could not persuade the members of either to seat him."^[1]

Contents 1 Early life 2 Political career 3 Later life 4 Legacy 5 See also 6 Notes 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Early life

Pinchback was born in Macon, Georgia (Bibb County), to a white planter (William Pinchback) and his former slave, Eliza Stewart. Known as "Pinckney Benton Stewart," he was educated at the Gilmore High School in Cincinnati. After his father died in 1848, he left Cincinnati because he feared that his paternal relatives would force him back into slavery. He worked as a hotel porter and barber in Terre Haute, Indiana.

In 1860, while in Indiana, Pinchback married the former Nina Emily. They had two daughters and four sons.

[edit] Political career

During the Civil War, Pinchback traveled to Louisiana and became the only African American captain in the Union-controlled 1st Louisiana Native Guards.

After the war, he became active in the Republican Party and participated in Reconstruction state conventions. In 1868, Pinchback organized the Fourth Ward Republican Club in New Orleans. That same year, he was elected as a Louisiana state senator, where he became the state Senate president pro tempore. In 1871 he became acting lieutenant governor upon the death of Oscar Dunn, the first elected African American lieutenant governor of a U.S. state.

In 1872, the incumbent Republican governor Henry Clay Warmoth, was impeached and convicted, removing him from office. Pinchback, as lieutentant governor, succeeded as governor on December 9.

Also in 1872, at a national convention of African-American politicians, Pinchbank had a public disagreement with Jeremiah Haralson of Alabama. James T. Rapier (also of Alabama) submitted a motion that the convention condemn all Republicans who had opposed President Grant in that year's election.^[2] Haralson supported the motion, but Pinchback opposed it because it would include Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, a lifelong anti-slavery fighter whom Pinchback felt African-Americans should laud.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Later life

After his brief governorship, Pinchback remained active in politics and public service. He was elected to both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, but both elections were contested, and his Democratic opponents were seated instead. Pinchback served on the Louisiana State Board of Education and was instrumental in establishing the predominantly black Southern University in New Orleans in 1880 (later relocated to Baton Rouge in 1914). He was a member of Southern University's board of trustees.

In 1882, Republican President Chester Alan Arthur named Pinchback as surveyor of customs in New Orleans. In 1885, he studied law at Straight University, (which was closed in 1934) in New Orleans. He was admitted to the bar in 1886, and later moved to New York City where he was a federal marshal, and then to Washington, D.C. where he practiced law.

Pinchback died in Washington in 1921 and was interred in Metairie Cemetery near New Orleans even though the cemetery at the time was segregated and deemed to be exclusively for whites.

[edit] Legacy

It was not until 1990 that another African American became governor of any U.S. state. In 1990, Douglas Wilder of Virginia became the second African-American state governor (and the first to be elected to the office). Deval Patrick of Massachusetts was the third in January 2007. Both Wilder and Patrick were elected as Democrats.

In 2007, Republican Bobby Jindal, who is of East Indian descent, was elected governor of Louisiana for a term starting in 2008. He is the first non-white individual to be elected governor of Louisiana, and will be the first non-white to serve as governor of Louisiana since Pinchback.

Pinchback was the maternal grandfather of Harlem Renaissance author Jean Toomer.

[edit] See also

• List of African-American officeholders during Reconstruction

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• State of Louisiana - Biography
• African American Publications (password required)
• Bennett, Lerone, Before the Mayflower (1969)
• Bontemps, Arna W.,100 Years of Negro Freedom (1961)
• 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)

[edit] External links

• Cemetery Memorial by La-Cemeteries

Preceded by Henry Clay Warmoth (R)

Governor of Louisiana Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback (R) 1872–1873

Succeeded by John McEnery (D)/ William Pitt Kellogg (R)

v • d • e Governors of Louisiana

First Period of Statehood (1812-1861): Claiborne • Villeré • Robertson • Thibodaux • H. Johnson • Derbigny • Beauvais • Dupre • Roman • White • Roman • Mouton • I. Johnson • Walker • Hébert • Wickliffe • Moore Confederate Louisiana (1861-1865): Moore • H. Allen Union-Controlled Louisiana (1862-1865): Shepley • Hahn Reconstruction Era (1865-1868): Wells • Flanders • Baker Second Period of Statehood (1868-Present): Warmoth • Pinchback • J. McEnery • Kellogg • Nicholls • Wiltz • S. McEnery • Nicholls • Foster • Heard • Blanchard • Sanders • Hall • Pleasant • Parker • Fuqua • Simpson • H. Long • King • O. Allen • Noe • Leche • E. Long • Jones • Davis • E. Long • Kennon • E. Long • Davis • McKeithen • Edwards • Treen • Edwards • Roemer • Edwards • Foster Jr. • Blanco

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