Rare1892 Letter Signed Former Slave John R. Lynch Early Black US Congressmen

Description

This is a neat historical find.  This is a US Treasury Department letter signed by former slave John R. Lynch.  He was born into slavery in 1847 and freed in 1863 with the Emancipation Proclamation.    After the war he won a seat in the Mississippi State Legislature and was subsequently elected Speaker of House in Mississippi state house.  He went on  to serve terms in the US House of Representatives in the 1870s and 1880s.  He was only one of five former slaves elected to Congress.     He lost his seat post-Reconstruction when Democrats imposed voting restrictions the African-American voters in the South.  He was only African-American member of Congress from Mississippi for a hundred years.  He then got a law degree, lived in Washington DC and Chicago until his death in 1939.    Teddy Roosevelt appointed him chairman of the Republican Convention in 1884 in Chicago --- one of many firsts.   He was probably best known for his book, "The Facts of Reconstruction" in 1913.
He was fascinating man with many lives throughout his 92 years.
Please give me a shout if you have questions.  This item will be shipped USPS Priority Insured.
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