New National Era clipping
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WILLIAM GRAY.
And here you have one of our colored Senators from Washington and Issaquena counties. Mr. Gray was, like my other two subjects, elected in 1869. He is, I believe, a Tennesseean by birth, came to this State in 1868, was ordained a Baptist minister shortly after, and, like all the loyal ministers in those eventful years, did his level best from the pulpit, as well as from the stump, to reconstruct the State upon a proper basis. He has been fighting for civil rights for his race in the State from the moment he took his seat in the Senate until this day. And he is now the chairman of the committee to which this bill is referred in the Senate, it having passed the House on Wednesday last. He has been the most persistent advocate of this measure of any member of the Legislature, and we trust he will close his present term with the proud satisfaction of knowing that his labors are crowned with success.
Mr. Gray is a man much below the ordinary stature of men, dark-brown complexion, with a quick and active step. He can get on his feet as quickly as a squirrel can leap from limb to limb on a tree, and with a mouthpiece always ready for a word. When he opens his mouth to speak, his eyelids are drawn together in a nervous manner, and if he speaks in retaliation, he slashes without mercy or regard. He stands very high in the estimation of his constituents, and I do not doubt but that he will be returned to the Senate next fall, if he wishes to.
And here you have one of our colored Senators from Washington and Issaquena counties. Mr. Gray was, like my other two subjects, elected in 1869. He is, I believe, a Tennesseean by birth, came to this State in 1868, was ordained a Baptist minister shortly after, and, like all the loyal ministers in those eventful years, did his level best from the pulpit, as well as from the stump, to reconstruct the State upon a proper basis. He has been fighting for civil rights for his race in the State from the moment he took his seat in the Senate until this day. And he is now the chairman of the committee to which this bill is referred in the Senate, it having passed the House on Wednesday last. He has been the most persistent advocate of this measure of any member of the Legislature, and we trust he will close his present term with the proud satisfaction of knowing that his labors are crowned with success.
Mr. Gray is a man much below the ordinary stature of men, dark-brown complexion, with a quick and active step. He can get on his feet as quickly as a squirrel can leap from limb to limb on a tree, and with a mouthpiece always ready for a word. When he opens his mouth to speak, his eyelids are drawn together in a nervous manner, and if he speaks in retaliation, he slashes without mercy or regard. He stands very high in the estimation of his constituents, and I do not doubt but that he will be returned to the Senate next fall, if he wishes to.
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New National Era, “New National Era clipping,” Mississippi State University Libraries, accessed October 30, 2024, https://msstate-exhibits.libraryhost.com/items/show/466.
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