AN EXTRAORDINARY COLLECTION (SLAVERY AND ABOLITION--RECONSTRUCTION.) Collection of 20 Autograph Signatures of the African-American politicians elected to Congress following the Civil War. Various sizes, all matted and framed with portraits, etc. While some of the signatures are on documents or letters, most are cut signatures. However, all have been framed with portraits, some with vintage newspaper articles and other relative material describing each politician in historical context. should be seen. Vp, 1868-1897
twenty out of twenty-four elected black reconstruction congressmen, the collection is lacking only four signatures: John Mercer Langston of Virginia, George W. Murray of South Carolina, Jefferson F. Long of Georgia and John W. Menard, of Louisiana. Menard, the first African-American to deliver a speech before the House of Representatives, is represented by a framed issue of the Frank Leslie's Magazine, for March 20th, 1869, showing him before the House of Representatives. One of two members of the House who were elected but not seated, Menard, delivered his famous Civil Rights speech on February 27, 1869. P.B.S. Pinchback of Louisiana was not seated either. Not surprisingly, many of the elections of black politicians in the deep South during this period were contested.
