Lynch, John Roy – Mississippi Politician
By
John C Abercrombie
Day 10, We look at John Roy Lynch who faced the perils of Gerrymandering as he fought for civil rights.
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John Roy Lynch was a Black American writer, attorney, military officer, author, and politician who served as Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives and represented Mississippi in the United States House f Representatives.
Lynch was born a slave September 10, 1847, on a plantation near Vidalia, in Concordia Parish, Louisiana. His mother Catherine White was enslaved, born in Virginia of mixed race as were both of her parents, Robert, and Elizabeth White. Using the term Partus Sequitur Ventrem which translates the Latin and means “That which is born follows the womb”. This legal doctrine passed in colonial Virginia in 1662 defines the legal status of children born here and mandated that all children would inherit the legal states of their mother.
John Roy’s father Patrick was the overseer on the plantation and had a common-law marriage with Catherine White. Patrick was prevented from marrying Catherine by law and lived in a common-law marriage. Common-law marriage is known as non-ceremonial marriage, sui iuris or informal marriage where a couple may be considered married without having formally registered their relationship as a civil or religious marriage.
To protect his family, Patrick planned to buy Katherine and their children, however before the transaction was completed a new owner bought the plantation and hired a different manager. This required a $1,000 bond imposed by the legislature for each person in the family. This was a blatant effort to reduce the number of people of color living in the state.
John Roy planned to move with his brother Edward to New Orleans as it had a large population of free people of color.
Before the death of John Roy’s father Patrick, he arranged for his friend, William G Deal to take title of Catherine and children to protect the family, but Deal sold them to Alfred Vidal Davis, a planter in Natchez. Catherine and the children did not get their freedom until 1863 under the Emancipation Proclamation. Because of an argument with Mrs. Davis John Roy had been sent to field labor and did not get his freedom until he was 16
Lynch worked with elements of the Union Army in the Natchez area. After the Civil War ended in 1865, a friend of his father’s arranged for him to work for a photographer. Lynch took on increased responsibilities until he managed the entire operation and its finances. He built a successful business in Natchez. Wanting to continue his education, Lynch attended a night school taught by Northerners. By the end of 1866, many such teachers were driven out of the state by Whites’ violent opposition to the education of freedmen. Lynch also read widely in books and newspapers during lulls in his business day. As Lynch’s business was near a white school, the young man often eavesdropped on lessons through the open windows. It should be noted that Black people were eager for education, but laws were passed to prevent this in an effort to maintain them in second class citizenship. It was Not because they could not learn! They did way too well at it.
Lynch’s leadership abilities were quickly recognized in Natchez, and he gained post-war political opportunities. At the age of 20 he attended the state’s constitutional convention of 1867. That constitution was defeated because it required the temporary disenfranchisement of former Confederates, and this proved to be highly unpopular.
White was appointed as a Justice of the Peach in 1869 at the age of 22. Later in 1869 he was elected to the Mississippi State House. In 1872 he was elected as Speaker of the Mississippi House and became the first Black to achieve the position. The Speaker of the House is the presiding officer and serves as the political and parliamentary leader.
In 1872 White became the youngest member of the United States Congress from Mississippi.
In 1874 Lynch was the only Republican in the Mississippi House delegation to be elected in the face of a Democratic campaign against Republicans and Blacks. Elections in the state were increasingly accompanied by violence and fraud as Democrats worked to regain political power. In 1874, the White League, a White paramilitary group active on behalf of the Democratic Party, had worked openly to intimidate and suppress Black voting, assassinating Blacks and running Republican officers out of town. In 1875 Democrats dominated the House of Representatives for the first time since the Civil War.
Lynch introduced many bills and argued on their behalf. Perhaps his greatest effort was in the long debate supporting the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to ban discrimination in public accommodations. He was one of seven Black Congressmen present, who all testified in 1874 as to personal and known experience of the effects of discrimination in this area.
White maintaining that the legislation would not force Blacks and Whites to mix socially, as southern Democrats feared, Lynch said,
“It is not social rights that we desire. We have enough of that already. What we ask for is protection in the enjoyment of public rights—rights that are or should be accorded to every citizen alike.”
Another speech included the following:
“They were faithful and true to you then; they are no less so today. And yet they ask no special favors as a class; they ask no special protection as a race. They feel that they purchased their inheritance, when upon the battlefields of this country, they watered the tree of liberty with the precious blood that flowed from their loyal veins. They ask no favors, they desire; and must have; an equal chance in the race of life.”
In 1876 Lynch spoke out against the White League and racial divisions in his state. The Democratic Party dominated the state legislature, redrawing his district and guaranteeing White majorities in the other five. Lynch contested the victory of Democrat James R. Chalmers from the 6th district, but with Congress dominated by Democrats, the Elections Committee refused to hear the case. As a result of a national Democratic Party compromise, in 1877 the federal government withdrew its troops from the South, and Reconstruction was considered ended. The Democrats kept control of the state legislature.
In 1880 Lynch re-entered politics. He ran against Democrat James R. Chalmers from the 6th district and contested his claim of victory in the majority-Black 6th district.
When his case came before the Committee on Elections on April 27, 1882, Lynch argued that in five counties, more than 5,000 of his votes had been counted for Chalmers. He further asserted that several thousand Republican ballots had been thrown out after a secret hearing because of technicalities such as a clerical failure to send a list of names with the returns and the presence of unusual marks on the ballots. Lynch’s strongest arguments were based on Chalmers’s remarks that Lynch’s votes had been thrown out and that he (Chalmers) was ‘in favor of using every means short of violence to preserve [for] intelligent white people of Mississippi supreme control of political affairs.’ The committee ruled in Lynch’s favor, and on April 29, 1882, the House voted 125 to 83 to seat him; 62 Members abstained.
Lynch was awarded the seat by Congress in 1882.
He had little time to campaign and lost re-election in 1882 by 600 votes, ending his career in Congress. He continued to have influence in Mississippi and in the Republican Party.
In 1884, Lynch became the first African American to chair a political party’s National Convention. Future president Theodore Roosevelt made a moving speech nominating Lynch as Temporary Chairman of the 1884 Republican National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. Lynch served as a member of the Republican National Committee for Mississippi from 1884 to 1889.
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Lynch, John Roy
John Roy Lynch
The Facts of Reconstruction by John R. LYNCH read by Guero Part 2/2 | Full Audio Book
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Book
T
he Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch (Incredible Lives for Young Readers)
A unique biography of a remarkable Reconstruction figure
John Roy Lynch spent most of his childhood as a slave in Mississippi, but all of that changed with the Emancipation Proclamation. Suddenly people like John Roy could have paying jobs and attend school. While many people in the South were unhappy with the social change, John Roy thrived in the new era. He was appointed to serve as justice of the peace and was eventually elected into the United States Congress.
This biography, with its informative backmatter and splendid illustrations, gives readers an in-depth look at the Reconstruction period through the life of one of the first African-American congressmen.
ABH – The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch
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Ancestry Kits
While many are reluctant to uncover their ancestry, most find someone to be proud of. They are afraid because they have been subjected to the false representations in our history books that paint a dreary picture of our ancestors and contributions. Like a mighty tree, we are a product of our roots and have nothing to fear.
The kits below can start you on your journey and below that is a book to start you with information on how to get the most out of your search. Treat yourself or give as a gift. Show pride in your discoveries!
ABH – Ancestry DNA Kit
Book – Black Roots by Tony Borroughs
Black Roots: A Beginners Guide To Tracing The African American Family Tree
Trace, document, record, and write your family’s history with this easy-to-read, step-by-step authoritative guide.
Finally, here is the fun, easy-to-use guide that African Americans have been waiting for since Alex Haley published Roots more than twenty-five years ago. Written by the leading African American professional genealogist in the United States who teaches and lectures widely, Black Roots highlights some of the special problems, solutions, and sources unique to African Americans. Based on solid genealogical principles and designed for those who have little or no experience researching their family’s past, but valuable to any genealogist, this book explains everything you need to get started, including: where to search close to home, where to write for records, how to make the best use of libraries and the Internet, and how to organize research, analyze historical documents, and write the family history.
This guide also includes:
-real case histories that illustrate the unique challenges posed to African Americans and how they were solved
-more than 100 illustrations and photographs of actual documents and records you’re likely to encounter when tracing your family tree
-samples of all the worksheets and forms you’ll need to keep your research in order
-a list of the traps even experienced researchers often fall into that hamper their research
Book
Black Roots – A great accompaniment to the above kit
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Chris Barton interview – The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch
Bluebonnet Award nominee Chris Barton author interview.
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Book
Reminiscences of an Active Life: The Autobiography of John Roy Lynch (Negro American Biographies and Autobiographies)
Born into slavery on a Louisiana plantation, John Roy Lynch (1847-1939) came to adulthood during the Reconstruction Era and lived a public-spirited life for over three decades. His political career began in 1869 with his appointment as justice of the peace. Within the year, he was elected to the Mississippi legislature and was later elected Speaker of the House. At age twenty-five, Lynch became the first African American from Mississippi to be elected to the United States Congress. He led the fight to secure passage of the Civil Rights Bill of 1875. In 1884, he was elected temporary chairman of the Eighth Republican National Convention and was the first black American to deliver the keynote address, an occasion that would not be repeated until 1968. His autobiography, Reminiscences of an Active Life, reflects Lynch’s thoughtful and nuanced understanding of the past and of his own experience. The book, written when he was ninety, challenges a number of traditional arguments about Reconstruction. In his experience, African Americans in the South competed on an equal basis with whites; the state governments were responsive to the needs of the people; and race was not always a decisive factor in the politics of Reconstruction. The autobiography, which would not be published until 1970, provides rich material for the study of American politics and race relations during Reconstruction. It sheds light on presidential patronage, congressional deals, and personality conflicts among national political figures. Lynch’s childhood reflections reveal new dimensions to our understanding of black experience during slavery and beyond. An introduction by John Hope Franklin puts Lynch’s public and private lives in the context of his times and provides an overview of how Reminiscences of an Active Life came to be written.
ABH – Autobiography of John Roy Lynch
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Wireless Air Pods
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Don Tate interview – The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch YouTube
Bluebonnet Award nominee Don Tate illustrator interview.
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Book
Black Reconstruction in America
This pioneering work was the first full-length study of the role black Americans played in the crucial period after the Civil War, when the slaves had been freed and the attempt was made to reconstruct American society.
Hailed at the time, Black Reconstruction in America has justly been called a classic.
ABH – Black Reconstruction in America
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Treadmills
The Facts of Reconstruction by John R. LYNCH read by Guero Part 2/2 | Full Audio Book
After the American Civil War, John R. Lynch, who had been a slave in Mississippi, began his political career in 1869 by first becoming Justice of the Peace, and then Mississippi State Representative. He was only 26 when he was elected to the US Congress in 1873. There, he continued to be an activist, introducing many bills and arguing on their behalf. Perhaps his greatest effort was in the long debate supporting the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to ban discrimination in public accommodations.In 1884 Lynch was the first African American nominated after a moving speech by Theodore Roosevelt to the position of Temporary Chairman of the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. During the Spanish-American War of 1898, he was appointed Treasury Auditor and then Paymaster under the Republicans. In 1901, he began serving with the Regular Army with tours of duty in the United States, Cuba, and the Philippines.Lynch retired from the Army in 1911, then married Cora Williams. They moved to Chicago, where he practiced law. He also became involved in real estate. After his death in Chicago 1939 at the age of 92, he was buried with military honors in Arlington National Cemetery. He was entitled to this as a Congressman and veteran.After the turn of the centutry, Lynch wrote a book, The Facts of Reconstruction, and several articles criticizing the then-dominant Dunning School historiography. Dunning and followers had emphasized the views of former slave owners and routinely downplayed any positive contributions of African Americans during Reconstruction, as well as suggesting they could not manage any political power. Lynch argued that blacks had made substantial contributions during the period. Since he participated directly in Reconstruction-era governments, Lynch’s book is considered a primary source in study of the period
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Book
Reconstruction in the Cane Fields: From Slavery to Free Labor in Louisiana’s Sugar Parishes, 1862—1880
In Reconstruction in the Cane Fields, John C. Rodrigue examines emancipation and the difficult transition from slavery to free labor in one enclave of the South — the cane sugar region of southern Louisiana. In contrast to the various forms of sharecropping and tenancy that replaced slavery in the cotton South, wage labor dominated the sugar industry. Rodrigue demonstrates that the special geographical and environmental requirements of sugar production in Louisiana shaped the new labor arrangements. Ultimately, he argues, the particular demands of Louisiana sugar production accorded freedmen formidable bargaining power in the contest with planters over free labor.
Rodrigue addresses many issues pivotal to all post-emancipation societies: How would labor be reorganized following slavery’s demise? Who would wield decision-making power on the plantation? How were former slaves to secure the fruits of their own labor? He finds that while freedmen’s working and living conditions in the postbellum sugar industry resembled the prewar status quo, they did not reflect a continuation of the powerlessness of slavery. Instead, freedmen converted their skills and knowledge of sugar production, their awareness of how easily they could disrupt the sugar plantation routine, and their political empowerment during Radical Reconstruction into leverage that they used in disputes with planters over wages, hours, and labor conditions. Thus, sugar planters, far from being omnipotent overlords who dictated terms to workers, were forced to adjust to an emerging labor market as well as to black political power.
The labor arrangements particular to postbellum sugar plantations not only propelled the freedmen’s political mobilization during Radical Reconstruction, Rodrigue shows, but also helped to sustain black political power — at least for a few years — beyond Reconstruction’s demise in 1877.
ABH – Reconstruction in the Cane Fields
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Exercise Equipment
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John Roy Lynch (Hosted by Former U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper) – A More Perfect Union
John Roy Lynch was born a slave but gained his freedom when Union troops occupied Natchez. He became a business owner, politician, and advocate for a new Mississippi Constitution
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As we look at issues like this, it is understandable that we divide into two camps. Group one supports telling their kids and themselves that lies are perfectly acceptable and preferable to the truth, as long as they continue to feel comfortable.
I on the other hand rather face the truth, giving myself a chance to understand the problem, learn from it and do something to remedy it rather than let it fester to the point that it eliminates any hopes of a cure. Join me in group two. We chose to resolve problems, not because it is easy, but because the solution benefits everyone!