People, Locations, Episodes

John R. Lynch, Mississippi Politician born

John Roy Lynch

This date marks the birth of John Roy Lynch, a Black politician, in 1847.

Born a slave in Concordia Parish, LA., Lynch was freed during the American Civil War and settled in Natchez, MS. There he learned the photography business, attended night school, and in 1869 entered public life as justice of the peace for Natchez County.  In November 1869, Lynch was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives and reelected in 1871.

Although Blacks were never the majority in the Mississippi legislature, Lynch was chosen speaker of the House in 1872.  That same year, he was elected to Congress and reelected in 1874.  1876, Reconstruction was over, and Lynch was defeated for a third term. In 1880, he ran again and was declared the loser, but he contested the decision and eventually was returned to his congressional seat.  In the House, he backed Civil Rights legislation.

Lynch retired to his plantation in Adams County, Mississippi, in 1883. In 1889, he returned to public office when President Benjamin Harrison appointed him the fourth auditor of the U.S. Treasury for the Navy Department.

Always active in the Republican Party, Lynch was a delegate to the national Republican Conventions of 1872, 1884, 1888, 1892, and 1900. He was temporary chairman in 1884, the first Black to preside over a national convention of a major U.S. political party.

In his book The Facts of Reconstruction (1913), Lynch attempted to dispel the erroneous notion that Southern state governments after the Civil War were controlled by blacks. He served prominently in Republican Party affairs in the 1870s and 1880s. John Lynch died Nov. 2, 1939, in Chicago, Ill.

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