Oscar Dunn Popular Books

Oscar Dunn Biography & Facts

Oscar James Dunn (1822 – November 22, 1871) served as Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana during the era of Reconstruction. In 1868, Oscar James Dunn became the first elected African American lieutenant governor of Louisiana and in the United States. He ran on the ticket headed by Henry Clay Warmoth, formerly of Illinois. In 1871, he became the first African American acting governor of a U.S. state after Governor Warmoth injured his foot and left Louisiana to recuperate on two occasions. Article 53 of the Louisiana Constitution of 1868 required the lieutenant governor to serve as acting governor "in case of impeachment of the Governor, his removal from office, death . . . resignation or absence from the state." Dunn served as acting governor of Louisiana for a total of 39 days. After Dunn's death, the state legislature elected state Senator Pickney Benton Stewart Pinchback, another African American Republican, to replace him as lieutenant governor. With 35 days remaining in his term, Governor Warmoth was impeached and P. B. S. Pinchback served as the second African American acting governor of Louisiana. Although, his term was brief, ten legislature became law. interim Early life In approximately 1822, Dunn was born into slavery in New Orleans. His mother Maria Dunn was enslaved under the law of the time. He received her status and was also enslaved. His father, James Dunn, had been freed in 1819 by his owner. James Dunn was born into slavery in Petersburg, Virginia and had been transported to the Deep South during the forced migration of more than one million African Americans from the Upper South. He was bought by James H. Caldwell of New Orleans, who founded the St. Charles Theatre and New Orleans Gas Light Company. Dunn worked for Caldwell as a skilled carpenter for decades, including after his emancipation by Caldwell in 1819. After being emancipated, Dunn married Maria, then enslaved, and they had two children, Oscar and Jane. Slave marriages were not recognized under the law. By 1832, Dunn had earned enough money as a carpenter to purchase the freedom of his wife and both children. Their status as free blacks was gained decades before the American Civil War. As English speakers, they were not, however, part of the culture of free people of color in Louisiana, who were primarily of French descent and culture and of the Catholic religion. James Dunn continued to work as a carpenter for his former master Caldwell. His wife, Maria Dunn, ran a boarding house for actors and actresses who were in the city to perform at the Caldwell theatres. Together, they were able to pay for education for their children. Having studied music, Dunn became both an accomplished musician and an instructor of the violin. Oscar Dunn was apprenticed as a young man to a plastering and painting contractor, A. G. Wilson. Wilson verified Dunn's free status in the Mayor's Register of Free People of Color 1840–1864. On November 23, 1841, the contractor reported Dunn as a runaway in a newspaper ad in the New Orleans Times-Picayune. However, Dunn must have returned to work because he progressed in the world. Dunn was an English-speaking free black in a city in which the racial caste system was the underpinning of daily life. Ethnic French, including many free people of color, believed their culture was more subtle and flexible than that brought by the English-speaking residents, who came to the city in the early-to-mid-19th century after the Louisiana Purchase and began to dominate it in number. Free people of color had been established as a separate class of merchants, artisans and property owners, many of whom had educations. However, American migrants from the South dismissed their special status, classifying society in binary terms, as black or white, despite a long history of interracial relations in their own history. Freemasonry Dunn joined Prince Hall Richmond Lodge #4, one of a number of fraternal organizations that expanded to New Orleans, out of the Prince Hall Ohio Lodge during the 19th century. In the latter half of the 1850s, he rose to Master and Grand Master of the Eureka Grand Lodge which became the Louisiana Grand Lodge [Prince Hall/York Rite]. Author and historian, Joseph A. Walkes Jr., a Prince Hall Freemason, credits Dunn with outstanding conduct of Masonic affairs in Louisiana. As a Freemason, Dunn developed his leadership skills, and he established a wide network and power base in the black community that was essential for his later political career. Marriage and family In December 1866, Dunn married Ellen Boyd Marchand, a widow born free in Ohio. She was the daughter of Henry Boyd and his wife of Ohio. He adopted her three children, Fannie (9), Charles (7) and Emma (5). The couple did not have children together. 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, where they were members. Reconstruction era and politics Dunn worked to achieve equality for the millions of blacks freed by passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, ratified after the American Civil War. He actively promoted and supported the Universal Suffrage Movement, advocated land ownership for all blacks, taxpayer-funded education of all black children, and equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment. He joined the Republican Party, many of whose members supported suffrage for blacks. Dunn opened an employment agency that assisted in finding jobs for the freedmen. He was appointed as Secretary of the Advisory Committee of the Freedmen's Savings and Trust Company of New Orleans, established by the Freedmen's Bureau. As the city and region struggled to convert to a free labor system, Dunn worked to ensure that recently freed slaves were treated fairly by former planters, who insisted on hiring by year-long contracts. In 1866, he organized the People's Bakery, an enterprise owned and operated by the Louisiana Association of Workingmen. Elected to the New Orleans city council in 1867, Dunn was named chairman of a committee to review Article 5 of the City Charter. He proposed 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 state Constitutional Convention of 1867–1868, the resolution was enacted into Louisiana law and laid the foundation for the public education system, established for the first time in the state by the biracial legislature. Dunn's biographer (and descendant) Brian K. Mitchell observed in a Chicago Tribune interview, "The reason he wanted to integrate schools is he believed that it's hard to change adults' minds, but if we have children growing up experiencing each other, we can erode racism in this country." Dunn was very active in local, state and federal politics, with connections to U.S.... Discover the Oscar Dunn popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Oscar Dunn books.