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Tue, 04.28.1846

Jeremiah Haralson, Politician born

JeremiahHaralson

*On this date, in 1846, Jeremiah Haralson was born. He was a Black politician who served in the House of Representatives.

Born a slave near Columbus, Georgia, he was taken to Alabama and kept in bondage until 1865. After attaining his freedom, Haralson taught himself how to read and write.  According to records, he became a farmer, clergyman, powerful orator, and debater. In 1870 he ran for Congress as an independent and defeated the republican candidate.

In 1870, the twenty-first district elected Haralson to the state Senate. Two years later, he urged Black voters to turn away from the republican movement and remain loyal to the reelection of President Grant.  In 1874, he was elected to Congress and took his seat on March 4, 1875, serving on the Committee on Public Expenditures. Though he made no speeches on the House floor, he introduced several pieces of legislation, including a bill to use proceeds from public land sales for educational purposes and a bill for the Medical College of Alabama relief.

He presented a petition from citizens of Mobile requesting compensation for the use of a medical college building and supplies by officials of the Freedmen’s Bureau. Haralson differed from many in his party when he criticized using federal soldiers to control violence and ensure orderly voting in the South during the 1876 election.  He also was in favor of general amnesty for former confederates.

After leaving Congress, Haralson worked as a clerk at Baltimore’s federal customhouse and a clerk in the Department of the Interior. By 1912 he returned to Alabama and settled in Selma, but soon began years as a wanderer, drifting to Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado.  Wild animals killed him in 1916, but no official records confirmed his death.

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Reference:

House.gov

Encyclopedia of Alabama.org

Black Americans In Congress 1870-1989.
Bruce A. Ragsdale & Joel D. Treese
U.S. Government Printing Office
Raymond W. Smock, historian and director 1990
E185.96.R25

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