Sources & Further Reading

Most of the portraits are cropped from the composite portraits of the 1874, 1876, 1878, 1880, 1882, and 1884 state legislatures. Unless otherwise noted, all other portraits are from public domain books and newspapers. There is also a portrait of some members of the 1890 legislature, but it is unlabeled.

Apart from sources like newspapers, census records, and the Mississippi House and Senate journals (see excerpts below), the following books contain a great deal of information about these men, and you will find quotes from them scattered throughout the individual pages.

Behrend, Justin. Reconstructing Democracy: Grassroots Black Politics in the Deep South after the Civil War. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2017.
Bennett, Lerone. Black Power U.S.A.: The Human Side of Reconstruction, 1867-1877. Chicago: Johnson, 1967.
Cabinis, E. W. The Clinton Riot: A True Statement, Showing Who Originated It. Jackson: Democratic-Conservative Executive Committee, 1875.
Foner, Eric. Freedom’s Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders during Reconstruction. Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 1993.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, editors. African American National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Journal of the Proceedings in the Constitutional Convention of the State of Mississippi. 1868. Jackson: E. Stafford, 1871.
Lynch, John Roy. The Facts of Reconstruction. New York: Neale Publishing Company, 1913.
McFarlin, Annjennette Sophie. Black Congressional Reconstruction Orators and Their Orations, 1869-1879. Metuchen, NJ: 1976.
Montgomery, Frank A. Reminiscences of a Mississippian in Peace and War. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke, 1901.
Satcher, Buford. Blacks in Mississippi Politics 1865-1900. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1978.
Thompson, Julius E. The Black Press in Mississippi, 1865-1985. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1993.
Thompson, Patrick H. The History of Negro Baptists in Mississippi. Jackson: R. W. Bailey Printing, 1898.
United States. Congress. Senate. Mississippi in 1875. Report of the Select Committee to Inquire into the Mississippi Election of 1875. Washington: GPO, 1876. (Link to Volume II)
Wharton, Vernon Lane. The Negro in Mississippi: 1865-1890. New York: Harper & Row, 1965.