bernard
THEE Realist
P.B.S. Pinchback became governor in Louisiana — the first Black officeholder to do so in the U.S. He was appointed to the position during impeachment proceedings against the elected governor.
His father was a white Mississippi plantation owner, and his mother had been freed from slavery before her son was born. When his father died, he and his family moved to Ohio, and by age 12 he was supporting his family, eventually working on Mississippi River steamboats.
He was so light-skinned he could have “passed” for white, but when the Civil War came, he eventually served as a captain for the 74th U.S. Colored Infantry.
Pinchback helped establish Southern University for Black students and aided Homer Plessy’s challenge of segregation in public transportation.
mississippitoday.org
His father was a white Mississippi plantation owner, and his mother had been freed from slavery before her son was born. When his father died, he and his family moved to Ohio, and by age 12 he was supporting his family, eventually working on Mississippi River steamboats.
He was so light-skinned he could have “passed” for white, but when the Civil War came, he eventually served as a captain for the 74th U.S. Colored Infantry.
Pinchback helped establish Southern University for Black students and aided Homer Plessy’s challenge of segregation in public transportation.
On this day in 1872
On this day in 1872, P.B.S. Pinchback became governor in Louisiana — the first Black officeholder to do so in the U.S.
mississippitoday.org