John Willis Menard
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John Willis Menard (1838-1893) was the first African-American elected to the U.S. Congress from Louisiana, in 1868. However, he was denied his seat. He was born on April 3, 1838 in Kaskaskia, Illinois. Menard moved to Florida, where he served in the Florida State House of Representatives in 1874, and where he was elected as justice of the peace for Duval County, in 1874 and again in 1877.
He was a poet, and the author of Lays in Summer Lands (1979). Menard was also the editor of the Florida News and the Southern Leader from 1882 to 1888. He died on October 8, 1893 in Washington, D.C.. His daughter, Alice Menard married Thomas Van Renssalaer Gibbs, the son of Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs.
[edit] References
- A Brief Biography of John Willis Menard from Southern University's John B. Cade Library
- "Reconstructing the Poetry of John Willis Menard" by Gilbert Wesley Purdy. Book review/essay with considerable historical information about the Reconstruction South.
- Canter Brown, Jr. Florida's Black Public Officials, 1867-1924. Tuscaloosa and London: The University of Alabama Press, 1998.
- Menard, John Willis. (2006). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved October 19, 2006, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9051962
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