Governer P.B.S Pinchback (1837-1921)

The first Person of Color to serve as governer of a state was not Douglas Wilder, but P.B.S. Pinchback.

His tenure as governor, however, was much shorter than Wilder's. Pinchback had been elected president pro tempore of the Louisiana senate in 1871 and promoted to lieutenant governor upon the death of Oscar J. Dunn. Pinchback was governor of Louisiana for just forty-six days, from December 9, 1872, to January 13, 1873, after the elected governor, Henry Clay Warmouth, was impeached.

Home  Other Services  All Around Louisiana  Louisiana Governors  1861–1877  P.B.S. Pinchback Pickney Benton Stewart Pinchback 1872- Born: ...............May 10, 1837 in Macon, Georgia Political Affiliation: ...........Republican ReligiousAffiliation: African Methodist Episcopal Education:.......... Gilmore School (Cincinnati); studied law at Straight University (New Orleans) Career Prior to Term: Union Army Officer, Lt. Governor How He Became Governor: Became acting Lt. Governor upon death of Dunn; became Governor upon suspension of Warmouth and then became the first African American to serve as a governor of a state of the United States Career after Term: State Board of Education, Internal Revenue Agent, member of Southern University Board of Trustees Died: December 21, 1921 in Washington, DC   Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback,   the son of a Mississippi white planter and a freed slave, became active in Republican Party politics in Louisiana as a delegate in the Republican state convention of 1867 and to the Constitutional Convention of 1868. Pinchback became Lieutenant Governor under Henry Clay Warmoth when Oscar Dunn died. After Warmoth was impeached, Pinchback became Governor. He held office for only 35 days, but ten acts of the Legislature became law during that time. After William Pitt Kellogg took office as a result of the controversial election of 1872, Pinchback continued his career, holding various offices including a seat on the State Board of Education, Internal Revenue agent and as a member of the Board of Trustees of Southern University. Pinchback helped established Southern University when, in the Constitutional Convention of 1879, he pushed for the creation of a college for blacks in Louisiana. Pinchback and his family moved to Washington and then New York where he was a Federal Marshal. He later moved back to Washington to practice law and died there in 1921. Pinchback is buried in Metairie. Back

Source..State of Louisiana web site.. Click here

Pinchback was never able to reach the governor's mansion by election, but he retired to Washington, D.C., where, along with Blanche Bruce, he became a celebrity in Washington social circles. Governer P.B.S Pinchback, was a former cabin boy, shrewd, capable, vain, a gambling type, a man who would put everything on an ace and, losing, walk away with a smile. Elliott was a dark-skinned free person of color with a some what mysterious background.

* Pinchback was fair-skinned, the son of a Mississippi planter and a colored woman who bore him ten children.

Pinchback was of like mind: he was what he was. A congressional investigating committee asked him if the governor acknowledged his strength. Pinchback was frank. "Oh, yes; he always acknowledged he couldn't get along without me. I have to tell you the truth." Bold, elegantly turned out, daring, Pinchback made his mark in reconstructed Louisiana. By turns a senator, lieutenant governor and governor, he held more major offices than any other person of color in American history.

In the fall of 1872 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. In January, 1873, he was elected to the Senate. He went to Washington, therefore, with the extraordinary distinction of being both a congressman-elect. (There were also disquieting rumors that Pinchback intended to make himself vice-president elect.) Pinchback did not go as a beggar. "Sir," he told the Senate, "I demand simple justice. I am not here as a beggar. I do not care as far as I am personally concerned whether you give me my seat or not. I will go back to my people and come here but I tell you to preserve your own consistency. Do not make fish of me while you make flesh of everybody else."

For three years the Senate grappled with Pinchback's case. Almost the whole of an extra session of Congress was devoted to the senator-elect from Louisiana. Finally, after hours of debate, he was rejected. The real reason, some authorities insist, was that the senators' wives told them that they did not intend to associate with Mrs. Pinchback.

During the controversy "Pinch," as he was called, became a national figure. Washington women, charmed by his "Brazilian" good looks, went out of their way to meet him and Pichback stories made the rounds. The Washington correspondent of the New York Commercial Advertiser was impressed by the senator-elect.