| Norris Wright Cuney | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 12, 1846 Hempstead, Texas, USA |
| Died | March 3, 1898 (aged 51) San Antonio, Texas, USA |
| Resting place | Lake View Cemetery, Galveston, Texas, USA |
| Residence | Galveston, Texas, USA |
| Other names | Wright Cuney |
| Years active | 1871 - 1896 |
| Known for | Leader of the Texas Republican Party |
| Spouse | Adelina Dowdie |
| Children | Maud Cuney Hare, Lloyd Garrison Cuney |
| Parents | Philip Minor Cuney, Adeline Stuart |
| Website | |
| TSHA: Cuney, Norris Wright | |
Norris Wright Cuney, or simply Wright Cuney, (May 12, 1846 – March 3, 1898) was an American politician, union leader, and African American activist in Texas in the United States. He became active in Galveston politics serving as an alderman and a national Republican delegate. Cuney was a member of the Union League and helped to unionize black workers in Galveston substantially improving employment opportunities and educational opportunities for blacks in the city. He eventually rose to the chairmanship of the Texas Republican Party and became a national committeeman.
Cuney is regarded by many as the most important black leader in Texas in the 19th century and one of the most important in the United States.
Norris Wright Cuney was born on May 12, 1846 near Hempstead, Texas in the Brazos River valley.[1] He was the fourth of eight children of Colonel Philip Cuney, a wealthy white plantation owner and senator, and Adeline Stuart, one of his slaves.[2] Wright Cuney is said to have been of African, Native American, and Swiss descent.[3] He considered Houston his home.[4]
Cuney was technically born into slavery though he was never made to serve as such. His father sent him to study in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at age 13 at the Wylie Street School for blacks in 1859 where he received his basic education.[5] The Civil War prevented his plans to attend Oberlin College.[6]
After the outset of the war Cuney obtained employment on a steamship traveling between Cincinnati and New Orleans.[6] Spending a great deal of time in New Orleans he became friends with influential figures such as P. B. S. Pinchback, who would go on to become Louisiana's first black governor.[4] At the end of the war he moved back to Texas and settled in Galveston.[4]
Cuney began self-study in law and literature.[4] He met George T. Ruby, a representative of the Freedmen's Bureau which was the federal agency responsible for providing aid to former slaves.[2] Ruby was secretly a director of the Union League, an organization dedicated to attracting freed Southern blacks to the Republican Party[7] (the party was a relatively small organization in Texas at the time as the Democratic Party mostly dominated politics).[8] Cuney became increasingly involved with the Union League and Ruby's ideology.
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Cuney was appointed first sergeant-at-arms of the Texas Legislature in 1870.[9] He befriended the Republican governor Edmund J. Davis. He was appointed as a delegate to the national Republican convention in 1872 and served in this role for every convention afterward until 1892.
In 1871 Cuney's interest in educational opportunities for blacks led to his appointment as one of the school directors for Galveston County.[10] Texas was still in the process of establishing a public education system and Cuney set out to ensure tax allocations guaranteed education for black students.
Cuney was appointed head of the Galveston chapter of the Union League in 1871.[9] As Ruby left Texas politics Cuney gained much of his clout without some of the negative associations Ruby had with Reconstruction.[11] In 1873 Cuney was appointed secretary of the Republican State Executive Committee. That same year he presided over the Texas convention of black leaders in Brenham.
In 1872 he was appointed the inspector of customs for the Port of Galveston and revenue inspector at Sabine Pass.[9] He became a popular figure in the community; as reform efforts in the city were pushed forward by the community's business leaders, Cuney was asked to participate.[12]
Cuney entered the race of Galveston mayor in 1875 but lost. He similarly lost bids for the for the state House of Representatives and Senate in 1876 and 1882.[9] Finally in 1883 he was elected alderman of the twelfth district on the Galveston City Council.
In 1882 he was advanced to the special inspector for customs at the port and then in 1889 he was appointed the customs collector for the port.[9] In 1883 he began a stevedore business employing 500 black dock workers loading and unloading ships. He later organized the black dockworkers into a labor union known as the "Colored Screwmen's Benevolent Association".[13] At the time white unions controlled the labor market on the docks. Cuney pushed black workers to cross white picket lines and accept lower wages in order to increase black presence on the docks and weaken white bargaining power against them. He even went so far as to recruit additional black dock workers from New Orleans.[14] Though inequities remained, the Trades Assembly was gradually forced to re-evaluate its racial policies and grant concessions.
In 1886 Cuney was elected as the Texas national committeeman in the Republican party and became the Texas party chairman, the most powerful position of any African American in the South during that century.[9] Cuney's popularity enabled him to shape the party in Texas; his opponents, white and black, were initially unable to challenge his authority in most matters.[15] His role and his importance became nationally recognized.[16]
Cuney's elevation to the Texas Republican chairmanship helped fuel worries and anger among white Republicans in Texas and nationwide.[17] Since Emancipation many whites in the young Republican party had worried about alienating Southern whites if blacks were allowed to gain too much influence in the party. Although initially the power of the black vote was seen favorably by the party leaders, this sentiment gradually changed. At the 1888 Republican convention a group of conservative whites attempted to have a number of important black leaders expelled leading Cuney to coin the term Lily-White Movement to describe the trend. Cuney nevertheless maintained control of the party.
In 1892 Democratic politician Grover Cleveland was elected U.S. President ending federal support for Cuney's efforts. He was unseated as chairman of the party in 1896.
On July 5, 1871 Cuney married Adelina Dowdie, a local school teacher.[18] The couple had two children, Maud and Lloyd Garrison (Lloyd was named after prominent abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison). Cuney went to great lengths to shelter his children from the racism which existed in Galveston society.[19] Several of the children's cousins lived nearby and the families organized regular gatherings and events.
Cuney's daughter Maud Cuney, later Maud Cuney Hare, would go on to be one of his most important biographers, in addition to becoming an accomplished musician, writer, and community organizer in Boston.[20]
Cuney was reportedly quite wealthy, with a net worth of approximately $150,000 in 1893 ($3.65 million in today's dollars) according to some reports.[16]
Some Texas historians refer to the period between 1884 and 1896 as the "Cuney era".[9][21] The period is remembered for the significant political gains made by blacks in Texas during the height of Cuney's career. Efforts at recruiting black voters led to more than 100,000 blacks voting annually during the 1890s.[22] The increased power of unionized black dock workers would eventually lead to combined black and white unions in Galveston during the 1890s and early 1900s (decade).[23]
The gains of this era were substantially reversed after Cuney's passing. Poll taxes and white primaries reduced the number of black voters in Texas to less than 5,000 in 1906.[22] By the 1930s racial strife in the unions, in part encouraged by the employers as well as segregationalists, had broken much of the labor cooperation between blacks and whites.[24] Still Cuney was a source of inspiration for other black leaders. Following his being removed from the Texas Republican chairmanship, William M. McDonald, a black Fort Worth banker, formed an alliance with multimillionaire Edward H. R. Green to recapture the party (after 1912, however, the "Lily White Movement" dominated the Texas Republicans permanently).[17][25]
Cuney is the namesake for various places and organizations. Wright Cuney Park is located between Broadway and Harborside Drive near the wharfs in Galveston. It is the site of the city's Juneteenth celebrations. The small town of Cuney, Texas, originally settled by freed slaves, was named after the son of the H.L. Price who incorporated the town. Price's son had been named after Wright Cuney. The Houston, Texas chapter of the Prince Hall Freemasonry is called the Norris Wright Cuney Grand Chapter. Cuney Homes, a public housing complex owned and operated by the Housing Authority of the City of Houston (HACH) is located near the campuses of Texas Southern University and the University of Houston.
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