Oscar James Dunn (1825 – 22 November 1871) was one of three African Americans who served as a Republican lieutenant governor of Louisiana during the era of Reconstruction.[1]
In 1868, Dunn became the first elected black lieutenant governor of a U.S. state. He ran on the ticket headed by carpetbagger Henry Clay Warmoth, formerly of Illinois. After Dunn died in office, then-state Senator P. B. S. Pinchback (also a black Republican) became lieutenant governor and thereafter governor for a 34-day interim period.
On December 22, 1866, Oscar James Dunn testified before the Select Committee on the New Orleans Riots of July 30, 1866 that "he was born in New Orleans in 1826 and was about 41 years old". His parents were James and Maria Dunn. His father, James Dunn of Petersburg, Virginia, had been emancipated by James H. Caldwell in New Orleans in 1819. James Dunn became a f.m.c. (free man of color)and later emancipated his wife, Maria, and their two children Oscar and Jane in 1832. James Dunn worked as a carpenter for James H. Caldwell (founder of the St. Charles Theatre and New Orleans Gas Light Company); Maria Dunn ran a boarding house for actors and actresses that came to perform at the Caldwell theatres.
Oscar James Dunn was neither a Creole of Color (gens de couleur), nor of fair complexion. He is described in an article in The New York Times on June 25, 1893 as "Jamaican, well educated, and pure African;" by September 16, 1894 the same newspaper describes Dunn as being "of pure negro blood". Other articles have describe him as a "griffe" (32 parts white/96 parts non-white; the child of a mulatto and a pure Black). A recently published photo from the National Archive of the Mathew Brady Collection, removes all misconceptions and attempts to illustrate Dunn as anything other than what he was.
Oscar James Dunn was apprenticed as a young man to the plastering and painting contractor, A. G. Wilson, who had earlier verified Dunn's free status in the Mayor's Register of Free People of Color 1840-1864. On November 23, 1841, he was reported as a RUNAWAY by the subscribers, [A.G.] Wilson & Patterson in a newspaper ad which ran in the Picayune.
Oscar later studied music, and became both an accomplished musician, and an instructor of the violin. Social, political, and racial conditions in the City of New Orleans were a catalyst for Dunn's focus on equality for all, especially those Blacks who had been freed after the Civil War. Dunn was an English speaking Black in a city where a self-imposed caste system was the underpinning of all aspects of daily life. A city where French culture was promoted as being more refined than the culture established by the English speaking residents who came to the city in the early-to-mid-19th century.
Dunn was a member of Richmond Lodge No.4 Prince Hall Masons which had been chartered by the Ohio Grand Lodge in 1850. He served all its offices except Tyler; becoming a Past Master in the late 1850s. He served as Grand Master of Eureka Grand Lodge of Louisiana the forerunner of the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Louisiana F & AM. Author James A. Walks, Jr, a Prince Hall Freemason, credits Dunn with outstanding conduct of Masonic affairs in Louisiana. First, he refused to acknowledge any authority higher than that of the Grand Lodge for the State...and was instrumental in passing Louisiana Act No. 71 in 1869 which incorporated the Grand Lodge of Louisiana with authority to confer the first three degrees in Masonry; and he established that the Prince Hall Masonic Lodges and Grand Lodge of Louisiana were followers of Ancient York Masonry. As a Freemason, he set-up a political power base that would be the foundation for his political career. He gave up his office as Grand Master on January 9, 1868 when he was elected Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana and returned to his position as Grand Master of the Eureka Grand Lodge of Louisiana in 1870 and remained in that position until his death November 22, 1871.
During the Reconstruction Era, Dunn became a business man who, among other professions, opened an "intelligence office" (employment agency) that assisted in finding jobs for freedmen. He actively promoted and supported the Universal Suffrage Movement; advocated land ownership for all Blacks; free public education of all Black children; and equal protection under the law. He was Secretary of the Advisory Committee of the Freedmen's Savings & Trust Company of New Orleans where he worked to insure that recently freed slave were treated fairly by former planters to who they were now contracted to perform the same duties they had once performed as slaves. In 1866 he organized the People's Bakery, an enterprise owned and operated by the Louisiana Association of Workingmen. In 1867, while a City Alderman, he was named Chairman of a committee to consider alterations to Article 5 of the City Charter; Dunn moved that "all children between the ages of 6-18 be eligible to attend public schools and that the Board of Aldermen shall provide for the education of all children...without distinction to color." In the Constitutional Convention of 1867-68, the entire resolution was enacted into Louisiana law. This laid the foundation for the public education system still in existence today, with some modifications.
Dunn was very active in local, state and federal politics; with connections in the north to presidential candidate Ulysses S. Grant, and Senator Charles Sumner. At a hotly contested nominating convention held in New Orleans, immediately following the adoption of the Constitution of 1867-1868, Francis E. Dumas refused the nomination of Lieutenant Governor. Dunn was consulted and agreed to the nomination. He defeated the white nominee, W. J. Blackburn by a vote of 54/27. The Warmoth-Dunn Republican Conservation Ticket was elected by a vote of 64,941 to 38,046, beginning the reign of the Radical Republican Party in Louisiana politics. He was inaugurated on June 13, 1868. He was President pro tempore of the State Senate; and a member od the Printing Committee of the Louisiana State Legislature, with access to a million-dollar budget. He also served as President of the Metropolitan Police with an annual budget of nearly one million dollars and responsibility for maintaining some sense of stability in a political atmosphere that was toxic. In 1870, Dunn served on the Board of Trustees and Examining Committee for Straight University.
In December 1866 Oscar James Dunn married the widow Ellen Boyd Marchand, daughter of Mr. and Mrs Henry Boyd of Ohio. He adopted Ellen's three children, Fannie (9), Charles (7) and Emma (5). Dunn and Ellen had no children of their own. In 1870 the Dunn family residence was on Canal Street, one block west of South Claiborne Avenue and within walking distance of Straight University and the St. James A.M.E. church complex.
As a Radical Republican and a member of the Customshouse faction, which had differences with the Warmoth-Pinchback faction of the party, Dunn made political enemies and had questionable allies. According to The New York Times, Dunn "had difficulties with Harry Lott", a Rapides Parish member of the House of Representative (1868–1870, 1870–1872). He also had problems with Louisiana Senator P.B.S. Pinchback (1868–1870, Dec 1871); and others in the Radical Republican party faction that split, over differences of policy, leadership, and direction.
On November 22, 1871, after a brief and sudden illness, while campaigning for the upcoming state and presidential elections, Dunn died at his home on Canal Street. What we know and do not know about the circumstances of his illness and death has led to many unanswered questions and given birth to many rumors: some true, some not true. Speculation evolved regarding foul play, but the parties suspected were never identified, and the Dunn death still remains a mystery. What we do know is that Oscar James Dunn had an unblemished reputation of being a man of character who sacrificed unselfishly for his people. He was respected by friend and foe, alike.
The Dunn funeral is said to have been one of the largest funerals the city of New Orleans has ever witnessed. As many as 50,000 citizens lined Canal Street for his funeral procession, and newspapers across the nation recorded the event and those in attendance. State officials, masonic lodges, civic and social organizations all participated in the procession from the St. James A.M.E. church to his grave site. Dunn was laid to rest in the Cassanave family mausoleum, St.Louis Cemetery #2.
The Picayune published a poem on the day after Dunn's death entitled The Death Struggle:
My back is to the wall
And my face is to my foes;
I've lived a life of combat,
And borne what no one knows.
But in this mortal struggle
I stand—poor speck of dust,
Defiant—self-reliant,
To die—if die I must.
After his death, his widow Ellen was appointed by the Mayor of New Orleans to the position of City Archives Director. On November 23, 1875 she married J. Henri Burch, a fellow member of the Customhouse faction and a former Louisiana Senator (1872-1874 East Baton Rouge Parish, 16th District). The Burch family resided in New Orleans.
Smith-Brown, Claudette L. A Re-Examination of Selected Primary Source Documents Regarding Oscar James Dunn, Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana, 1868-1871. (2007) Masters's Thesis, Baton Rouge: Southern University and A&M College Graduate School, Pages 244.