John Roy Lynch
Research Notes Collected by Angela L MSSPI 2009
"If this unjust discrimination is to be longer tolerated by the American people... then I can only say with sorrow and regret that our boasted civilization is a fraud; our institutions a failure; our social system a disgrace; and our religion a complete hypocrisy."
John Roy Lynch 1847-1939
John Roy Lynch was born on a plantation near Vadalia in Concordia Parish La., September 10, 1847. Son of an Irish plantation owner, Patrick Lynch, and a slave woman named Catherine. Patrick Lynch's wishes that John and Catherine be liberated and set free after his death were ignored by his family and they were instead sold to another plantation, Dunleith in Natchez, Mississippi, in the heart of one of the richest cotton plantation areas in the South.
Dunlieth 1936
(Dunleith is one of the most photographed of the famous
Natchez pre-Civil War mansions)
John Roy Lynch grew up as a slave in Natchez, Mississippi, he did not have access to education at all. He was a young man, just as emancipation came with the Union forces. Very bright and known as a fast learner.
When the war ended, Lynch wasted no time pursuing the new opportunities that freedom
brought with it. He found a job working at a photography studio and soon was enrolled in one of the new evening schools in town. After only four months, he had learned to read and write.
He kept himself posted on the current events of the day by reading newspapers and magazines. He was especially interested in the proceedings of Congress and books on Parlimentary Law. Lynch's passion for politics soon catapulted him into the Mississippi legislature.
In April, 1869 Lynch was appointed a Justice of the Peace by Republican Governor Adelbert Ames. He was elected to the Mississippi state House of Representatives seven months later in November, 1869. In January 1872 Lynch was chosen to be the Speaker. That same year Lynch won a congressional seat and became a member of the 43rd congress at the age of 25, one of seven black Congressmen to be elected that year.
During his time in congress he was known for his work in favor of House passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1875. Lynch’s congressional career ended in 1882 when Democrats regained control of Mississippi politics.
(See The Gandy Collection and read about Jim Crow)
Despite his inability to win reelection to congress after 1882, Lynch remained an active force in Republican politics. He served as chairman of the state republican party from 1881 to 1892, was a delegate to every national party convention from 1872 to 1900 (except 1896), and in 1884 was its temporary chairman. He was also the first African American to deliver a keynote address at a convention for a national political party.
In 1889 Lynch was appointed by President Benjamin Harrison to serve as 4th auditor of the treasury, a post he held until 1893. In 1896 Lynch was admitted to the Mississippi bar and proceeded to open a law office in 1897. By 1898 he received another presidential appointment- this time from President McKinley to be Major and additional Paymaster of volunteers during the Spanish-American War. This was followed by a third presidential appointment to be Paymaster of the regular army and a promotion to Major in 1901 and 1906, respectively. John Roy Lynch retired from the army in 1911.
In the early 20th Century Lynch produced two histories, The Facts of Reconstruction (1913), and Some Historical Errors of James Ford Rhodes (1922). His autobiography, Reminiscences of an Active Life (was published in 1970). John Roy Lynch died in Chicago on November 2nd, 1939, he was 92-years-old, the last of the Reconstruction-era African American congressmen.
It wasn't until 1987, more than a hundred years after Lynch's last term in Washington, that Mississippi elected another black representative to the U.S. Congress.
Image courtesy of Library Congress
LYNCH, John Roy, a Representative from Mississippi; born near Vidalia, Concordia Parish, La., September 10, 1847; after his father’s death moved with his mother to Natchez, Miss., in 1863, where they were held as slaves; after emancipation engaged in photography and attended evening school; appointed by Governor Ames as a justice of the peace in 1869; member of the State house of representatives 1869-1873 and served the last term as speaker; delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1872, 1884, 1888, 1892, and 1900; elected as a Republican to the Forty-third and Forty-fourth Congresses (March 4, 1873-March 3, 1877); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1876 to the Forty-fifth Congress; successfully contested the election of James R. Chalmers to the Forty-seventh Congress and served from April 29, 1882, to March 3, 1883; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1882 to the Forty-eighth Congress; returned to his plantation in Adams County, Miss., and engaged in agricultural pursuits; chairman of the Republican State executive committee 1881-1889; member of the Republican National Committee for the State of Mississippi 1884-1889; temporary chairman of the Republican National Convention at Chicago in 1884; Fourth Auditor of the Treasury for the Navy Department under President Harrison 1889-1893; studied law; was admitted to the Mississippi bar in 1896; returned to Washington, D.C., in 1897, where he practiced his profession until 1898, when he was appointed a major and additional paymaster of Volunteers during the Spanish-American War by President William McKinley; was appointed by President McKinley as a paymaster in the Regular Army with the rank of captain in 1901; was promoted to major in 1906; retired from the Regular Army in 1911; moved to Chicago, Ill., in 1912 and continued the practice of his profession until his death in that city on November 2, 1939; interment in Section 4 of Arlington National Cemetery. Arlington County Virginia.
Photo by Anne Cady Find a Grave Memorial # 7383548
Bibliography
”John Roy Lynch” in Black Americans in Congress, 1870-2007. Prepared under the direction of the Committee on House Administration by the Office of History & Preservation, U. S. House of Representatives. Washington: Government Printing Office, 2008; Lynch, John Roy. Reminiscences of an Active Life. Edited by John Hope Franklin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970. Reprint Edition, Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2008.
Sources:
Steven Middleton, Black Congressmen During the Reconstruction (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002);
Bruce A. Ragsdale and Joel D. Treese, Black Americans in Congress, 1870-1989
(Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1990);
O'Connor, Allison Marie , University of Washington
bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=L000533 .
www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/lynch-john-roy-1847-1939
www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reconstruction/players/vb_activism_tr_qry.html
www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7383548
www.jimcrowhistory.org/history/history.htm