How a Slave’s Son Fought for Black Rights in Reconstruction-Era Louisiana

‘Pinchback: America’s First Black Governor’By Nicholas PatlerUniversity Press of Mississippi, 226 pagesP.B.S. Pinchback (1837-1921), governor of Louisiana for only 35 days, nonetheless managed to stabilize the position of a weakened Republican Party and enact several laws protecting the rights of African American citizens. He established a legacy that — while repudiated in his lifetime by the rise of Jim Crow legislation — remains an impressive fulfillment of the goals of Congressional Reconstruction.Although Pinchback’s grandson, Jean Toomer (one of the major writers of the Harlem Renaissance) cast doubt on Pinchback’s black heritage, Nicholas Patler presents a convincing depiction of a sincere, if wily, politician who began life as the son of an enslaved mother and a white planter.This engrossing biography is the first full account of Pinchback’s courageous and unrelenting pursuit of equal rights for African Americans. He aligned himself with the Radical Republicans, realizing that he had to seize the day before more moderate Republicans sacrificed the civil rights of black people in pursuit of an accommodation with racist Democrats, who were to reassert their hegemonic rule in the South.Pinchback parlayed his powerful efforts to create an integrated Louisiana into the impeachment of a white governor whose collaboration with Democrats held back the progress of Reconstruction. Elected by the legislature as a United States senator, Pinchback was never able to assume his seat in Congress — not even with the support of President Grant.Why Pinchback was not seated and why his political career stalled is carefully assessed, although Mr. Patler honestly cannot say what mattered most — the prejudice of white senators or allegations of corruption that dogged Pinchback from the very beginning of his public career.Mr. Patler points out that political corruption was rife in Louisiana among many politicians, and not a singular feature of black office holders during Reconstruction. The historical record discloses, Mr. Patler argues, a state that has continued corrupt practices from the regime of Huey Long down to the current day. Pinchback cautiously rebutted charges of corruption, never claiming to have a perfect record of probity, and Mr. Patler suggests that he may well have profited from his public offices, given the wealth he was able to amass.Pinchback might well have been able to pass for white, Mr. Patler suggests, but identified with African Americans because his mother had been treated so badly by the relatives of her white husband — who was her slavemaster before he married her and put aside his white wife. Mr. Patler does not speculate, but perhaps Pinchback’s father’s remarkable commitment to a black woman inspired Pinchback to think that it might just be possible for black and white people to go to school together, to socialize, and to function on the basis of equality, although he regarded as preposterous the argument that this kind of integration would just happen over the course of time. Only by taking action, by passing laws, could African Americans begin to exercise freedom.If Toomer sometimes doubted his grandfather’s African American heritage, it may have been because Pinchback was an opportunist — like so many politicians — and manipulative, having learned his skills gambling on Mississippi riverboats. Toomer did not gainsay his grandfather’s courage, but perhaps, Mr. Patler surmises, Pinchback’s patriarchal behavior offended a grandson who was working out his own destiny as an African American. Pinchback, after his brief governorship and failure to be seated in the Senate, remained active in social and political causes. His most impressive supporter was Frederick Douglass, who never doubted his friend’s commitment to the advancement of black people. They remained lifelong friends.Failing in health only in his last years, Pinchback relied on Toomer, who took care of him and learned to appreciate how tirelessly his grandfather had worked for the liberation of black people.This is a scrupulously researched and well-written book. Mr. Patler never tries to say more about Pinchback than can be verified, thus resisting the vexatious gaps in the evidence that sometimes spur biographers to write about what their subjects must have thought or felt. No more is said about Pinchback than can be confirmed by the evidence that has been marshaled in this powerful and persuasive biography.Mr. Rollyson is the author of “Faulkner On and Off the Page: Essays in Biographical Criticism.”

How a Slave’s Son Fought for Black Rights in Reconstruction-Era Louisiana

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