Reminiscences of an Active Life : The Autobiography of John Roy Lynch.
Title:
Reminiscences of an Active Life : The Autobiography of John Roy Lynch.
Author:
Lynch, John Roy.
ISBN:
9781604733303
Personal Author:
Physical Description:
1 online resource (358 pages)
Contents:
Cover -- CONTENTS -- INTRODUCTION -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- PREFACE -- 1 His Father's Keeping -- 2 Into Bondage Again -- 3 The War Came -- 4 Confederate Looting -- 5 Looking for Employment -- 6 In the Photography Business -- 7 A Constitution for Mississippi -- 8 Justice of the Peace -- 9 1869: State Elections and Reorganization -- 10 Electing a Legislature -- 11 Financing State Reconstruction -- 12 Speaker of the House Lynch -- 13 1872: Election to Congress -- 14 Visit to Saint Louis -- 15 1873: Mississippi Senatorial Elections -- 16 Governors Alcorn and Ames -- 17 The Colored Vote: Mississippi -- 18 The Colored Vote: The South -- 19 1874: Diminishing Republican Power -- 20 1875: Gloomy Prospects for Reelection -- 21 1875: Conversation with the President -- 22 1875: Democratic Victory -- 23 The Disputed Presidency -- 24 1880: Garfield, the Compromise Candidate -- 25 1880: The Battle for Reelection -- 26 The Vicksburg Postmastership -- 27 The Garfield Years -- 28 1881: Republican and Greenback Alliance -- 29 1882: Party and Election Disputes -- 30 1884: Presidential Nominations -- 31 1885: The Failure of J. R. Chalmers -- 32 Marriage and Divorce -- 33 The Cleveland Years: Interracial Marriages -- 34 The Harrison Years -- 35 Republican Factionalism and the Problem of Disenfranchisement -- 36 Cleveland's Reelection -- 37 Law Firm of Terrell and Lynch -- 38 1896: The McKinley Campaign -- 39 Contest for Mississippi Delegates -- 40 Fighting the Hill Organization -- 41 McKinley Appointments: The Postal Service -- 42 McKinley Appointments: Army Paymaster Lynch -- 43 Keeping in Politics -- 44 Controversial Convention Procedures -- 45 In Cuba -- 46 In Nebraska -- 47 In Puerto Rico and San Francisco -- 48 In Hawaii and the Philippines -- 49 Retirement and Remarriage -- 50 Democrats in the South: The Race Question -- INDEX -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H.
I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W.
Abstract:
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. 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.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
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