Exposing Jim Crow

The first African American to serve in the Tennessee General Assembly was Sampson Keeble, elected to a two-year term beginning in 1873. During the following term, to which Keeble was not re-elected, the state legislature passed the first of Tennessee's so-called "Jim Crow" laws, permitting discrimination in railroad trains, restaurants, and other public facilities. The bill as enacted was written imprecisely enough that it did not draw the critical attention of the U.S. Congress, whose Reconstruction laws restricted this type of injustice. However, House Bill 527 as originally submitted made sponsor R. P. Cole's objectives perfectly clear -- he intended to ban blacks from using any public facilities enjoyed by whites.

As the bill moved through the state legislature, passing both its first and second readings, it was referred to the Judiciary Committee for their recommendations and approval. The committee members removed all specific references to African Americans (including ludicrous and malicious references to the kink of the hair, bodily contours and odors, and descendance from "canibals"), while admittedly supporting the author's intent in every way. They reworded the bill, crafting its final, ambiguous language and submitted it to the General Assembly, where it received final approval and passed into law, as Chapter 130, Acts of Tennessee, 1875.

More information about the bill and about the first black legislators in Tennessee can be found on the Tennessee State Library and Archives (TSLA) website. The following links will beam you to some of the most interesting sections of the site:

http://www.state.tn.us/tsla/
(This is the main page of the TSLA website, with links to many of the features the Tennessee State Library and Archives has made available online.)

http://www.state.tn.us/tsla/exhibits/blackhistory/index.htm
(This is the main page of "This Honorable Body: African American Legislators in 19th Century Tennessee," with links to the other sections of this exhibit. Be sure to turn the sound on -- you will hear a song by the Fisk Jubilee singers on this page.)

http://www.state.tn.us/tsla/exhibits/blackhistory/bios/boyd.htm
(Scroll down this biography page to the last paragraph, where you will find a direct link to a PDF file of a recent transcription of Chapter 130.)

http://www.state.tn.us/tsla/exhibits/blackhistory/timelines/timeline.htm
(On the first page of the timeline is a link in the upper right corner to a PDF file of a much more complete timeline, which includes the transcribed texts of many of the documents mentioned, including the Emancipation Proclamation; the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments; the Wade-Davis bill; the Civil Rights acts of 1866 and 1875; and Chapter 130, along with many more.)

http://www.state.tn.us/tsla/exhibits/blackhistory/resources.htm
(This page gives you access to a down-loadable PowerPoint presentation about the first African American legislators in Tennessee.)

http://tsla-teva.state.tn.us/
(While you're on the TSLA website, don't miss this exciting new feature. TeVA, the Tennessee Virtual Archive, is TSLA's rapidly-growing online digital collection, featuring historical documents, maps, photographs, and much more. TeVA can make valuable historical materials available to teachers, students, and researchers who cannot easily make the trip to Nashville to visit the library. We expect that this site will continue to grow for many years, making more and more primary resources available to the public.)

Tennessee's Astonishing 19th Century African American Legislators

Few people know that, between 1872 and 1897, fourteen African American men, most of them former slaves, were elected to the Tennessee General Assembly. Five of them were lawyers, one representing Ida B. Wells in her famous lawsuit against a railroad company, another taking a landmark case to the U.S. Supreme Court. One put himself through college (Fisk University) by teaching in the summertime in a schoolhouse he built with his own hands. Three others earned prestigious Peabody Scholarships to attend college in Nashville (two at Fisk, and one at Roger Williams University, where he later taught); two others studied at Oberlin College in Ohio.
One of these individuals was nominated to be Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives, receiving 32 of the 93 votes cast. Several served as city councilors or court magistrates in Memphis, Chattanooga, and Nashville. One had already served as a state representative in North Carolina before moving to Tennessee. By any standards, these were remarkable men.
But their successes were short-lived. Although elected to a second legislative term, David F. Rivers never served it -- racial violence in his home county forced him to give up his election in order to ensure the safety of his family. Samuel A. McElwee had to flee attacking night riders and saw his election stolen from him when many votes were changed; he never returned to his home. When Styles L. Hutchins' law office was set on fire, he left the state forever. Most of the former legislators found themselves living in reduced circumstances or having to leave Tennessee in order to practice their professions. Rivers became the pastor of a large church in Washington, D.C., serving until his death in 1941; McElwee and Hutchins both moved to Illinois in order to be able to practice law in safety. Many others moved to other states, as well. One former legislator ended his life as an elevator operator; several were never heard from again.
After Reconstruction, the infamous Jim Crow laws systematically stripped black voters of their rights, until African Americans had virtually no political power. It was not until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 – 100 years after the end of the Civil War – that state-sanctioned voter discrimination officially came to an end. After the end of the 45th General Assembly in March of 1887, Tennessee would not seat another African American in its legislature until 1965.

If you want to learn more about these fourteen remarkable legislators and their work in the Tennessee General Assembly, visit the TSLA exhibit: "This Honorable Body: African American Legislators in 19th Century Tennessee" online at
http://www.state.tn.us/tsla/exhibits/blackhistory/index.htm