This letter (below the dashed line) from Congressman Peter Welch of Vermont
appeared in Saturday's Washington Post. (And I do have to add -- completely
irrelevantly, and solely on esthetic grounds that I couldn't define -- that
one of the top names I've ever encountered is Alexander Lucius Twilight.)
Steve Corneliussen
Poquoson, Virginia
- - - - - - - - - - -
Another Candidate For 'First'
Washington Post, Saturday, June 21, 2008; p. A15
The June 7 front-page article "The 'Obama Before Obama' " said that
Virginia native John Mercer Langston is regarded "by many accounts" as the
first black person "elevated to public office by popular vote." Langston was
elected township clerk in Brownhelm, Ohio, in 1855 and later elected to the
U.S. House of Representatives.
On behalf of the state of Vermont, I submit that our country's first
black elected official was Alexander Lucius Twilight, born in Corinth, Vt.,
in 1795.
The Vermont Constitution, adopted in 1777, outlawed slavery and
guaranteed the right of every male resident over 21 to vote and hold
elective office. Twilight, a Presbyterian minister and educator, was elected
to the Vermont House of Representatives in 1836.
In addition to winning this historic election, Twilight, a graduate of
Middlebury College, also had the distinction of being the first black
recipient of a college degree in the United States.
Langston and Twilight are both noteworthy pioneers in American political
history, and their accomplishments should be remembered and celebrated.
-- Peter Welch
Hartland, Vt.
The writer, a Democrat, is the U.S. Representative from Vermont.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Finkelman" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, June 09, 2008 4:42 PM
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Louisa Virginia's John Mercer Langston
of course he was NOT the nation's first black elected official, but it is a
claim for local historry. New Hampshire had black elected officials in the
18th century! Vermont had a black state legislator in the 1830s. I would
think whoever wrote this would have done his homework.
Paul Finkelman
President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law
and Public Policy
Albany Law School
80 New Scotland Avenue
Albany, New York 12208-3494
518-445-3386
[log in to unmask]
>>> James Brandau <[log in to unmask]> 06/09/08 4:06 PM >>>
Yes, indeed. Louisa, Va. is an extraordinary place. Dr. Shifflett of
Virginia Tech made an exhaustive study of the social economics of the county
in Patronage & Poverty in the Tobacco South. The racial complexity of the
Green Springs District especially is fascinating and deeply convoluted. I
only scratched the surface in my book Murder At Green Springs. No doubt some
enterprising scholar will one day realize a doctoral dissertation from the
information in depth.
Jon Kukla <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From HNN : The 'Obama Before Obama'
Source: WaPo (6-7-08)
LOUISA, Va. -- Planted in the lawn at the courthouse on West Main Street
here is a gray historical marker that draws little attention. It proudly
proclaims that the country's first black elected official was native son
John Mercer Langston, born in this central Virginia county, the son of a
wealthy white planter and an emancipated slave of Indian and black ancestry.
History seems to whisper more often than it shouts. Langston was one of the
most extraordinary men of the 19th century, and yet his achievements --
prominent abolitionist, first black congressman from Virginia, founder of
what would become the Howard University law school -- have largely been
forgotten. In the arc of American advancement toward black political
empowerment, Langston represents the symbolic beginning. Elected township
clerk of Brownhelm, Ohio, on April 2, 1855, he became, by many accounts, the
first "Negro" elevated to public office by popular vote.
It took 153 years to get from John Mercer Langston to Barack Hussein Obama,
a journey that endured the dashed hopes of Reconstruction and the oppression
of Jim Crow to arrive at a moment that has stunned even those optimistic
about America's racial progress. An underdog black politician has secured a
major party's presidential nomination in a country where less than 4 percent
of its elected officials are African Americans?
Posted on HNN - History News Network, Monday, June 9, 2008
--
Jon Kukla
www.JonKukla.com
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J. K. Brandau
Murder At Green Springs:
The True Story of the Hall Case,
Firestorm of Prejudices
http://www.murderatgreensprings.com
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