Lynch, John Roy

1847
November 2, 1939

Politician and lawyer John Roy Lynch was born a slave on a Louisiana plantation, later moved to Mississippi with his mother, and became free when Union forces occupied Natchez in 1863. At the end of the Civil War he was the proprietor of a thriving photographic business while attending evening classes. In 1867 he became active in politics, joining a Republican club in Natchez and supporting the new state constitution. In 1869 he was elected to the lower house of the Mississippi legislature, where he made a quite favorable impression; three years later his colleagues elevated him to the position of speaker. In 1873 he ran for Congress and won.

As one of the vigorous supporters of the Civil Rights Bill of 1875, Lynch became widely known. Reelected in 1874, he was defeated in 1876. After successfully contesting the election in 1880, he returned to Congress but was defeated once more in 1882. In 1884 he delivered the keynote address at the Republican National Convention, the first African American to be so honored. Subsequently he managed his Mississippi plantation, served as fourth auditor of the Treasury, was paymaster of volunteers in the Spanish-American War, and practiced law in Mississippi, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. In 1913 he published The Facts of Reconstruction to refute the claims of so-called scientific historians of Reconstruction. Lynch died in his Chicago home and was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

See also Politics in the United States

Bibliography

Lynch, John Roy. Reminiscences of an Active Life: The Autobiography of John Roy Lynch. Edited by John Hope Franklin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970.

john hope franklin (1996)