John R. Lynch

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John Roy Lynch

For other persons named John Lynch, see John Lynch (disambiguation).

John Roy Lynch (September 10, 1847 - November 2, 1939) was the first African American Speaker of the House in Mississippi. He was also one of the first African American members of the U.S House of Representatives during Reconstruction, the period in United States history after the Civil War.

1 Biography
2 References
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Biography

Lynch was born a slave near Vidalia, Concordia Parish, Louisiana and was held in slavery under the breakaway Confederate government in the southern part of the United States. According to historian Eric Foner, Lynch was freed by the United States Union Army in 1864 near the end of the Civil War.

According to Foner, Lynch "published a book, The Facts of Reconstruction, and several articles criticizing the then dominant Dunning School historiography" which presented the views of former slave owners and routinely showed the role of African Americans during Reconstruction in a false light. The Facts of Reconstruction is freely available online [1], courtesy of the Gutenberg Project. His book is a Primary Source in the study of Reconstruction.

Lynch died in Chicago at the age of 92 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

[edit] References

Bell, Frank C. The Life and Times of John R. Lynch: A Case Study 1847-1939 Journal of Mississippi History 38 (February 1976): 53-67.
Foner, Eric ed., Freedom's Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders During Reconstruction Revised Edition. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996). ISBN 0-8071-2082-0. John R. Lynch is profiled in this directory.
Franklin, John Hope. "Lynch, John Roy." In Dictionary of American Negro Biography, edited by Rayford W. Logan and Michael R. Winston, pp. 407-9. New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1982.
Franklin, John Hope editor, Reminiscences of an Active Life: The Autobiography of John Roy Lynch (Chicago, 1970).
Franklin, John Hope. "John Roy Lynch: Republican Stalwart from Mississippi" in Howard Rabinowitz (ed) Southern Black Leaders of the Reconstruction Era (Urbana, 1982) and reprinted in John Hope Franklin, Race and History: Selected Essays, 1938-1988 (Louisiana State University Press, 1989)
"John Roy Lynch" in Black Americans in Congress, 1870-1989. Prepared under the direction of the Commission on the Bicentenary by the Office of the Historian, U.S. House of Representatives. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1991.
Lynch, John Roy. Colored Americans: John R. Lynch's Appeal To Them. Milwaukee: Allied Printing, [1900?]
Lynch, John Roy. The Facts of Reconstruction. New York: The Neale Publishing Company, 1913. Reprint, edited by William C. Harris, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co., [1970].
Lynch, John Roy. The Late Election in Mississippi. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1877.
Lynch, John Roy. Reminiscences of an Active Life. Edited and with an Introduction by John Hope Franklin. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1970.
Lynch, John Roy. Some Historical Errors of James Ford Rhodes. Boston: The Cornhill Publishing Co., 1922.
Mann, Kenneth Eugene. John Roy Lynch: U.S. Congressman from Mississippi Negro History Bulletin 37 (April/May 1974): 238-41.
*McLaughlin, James Harold. John R. Lynch, The Reconstruction Politician: A Historical Perspective. Ph.D. diss., Ball State University, 1981.
Schweninger, Loren, Black Property Owners in the South 1790-1915 (Urbana, Ill., 1990)
John R. Lynch, The Facts of Reconstruction (New York, 1913) [2]
Pittsburgh Courier Feb. 22, 1930.
DeSantis, Vincent P.Republican Face the Southern Question: The New Departure Years, 1877-1897 (Baltimore, 1959)