A Black Congressman in the Age of Jim Crow: South Carolina's George Washington Murray (New Perspectives on the History of the South)

Born a slave in 1850s South Carolina and elected to Congress in the 1890s, George W. Murray appeared to be the antithesis of the African American male in the Jim Crow South and served as a beacon for African Americans who saw their hopes crushed in the aftermath of the Civil War. Early in the twentieth century, however, tragically defeated by corrupt Reconstruction politics and white supremacist attitudes he could not escape, Murray was driven from office and from the state. Drawing on extensive research to reconstruct Murray’s life story, Marszalek defines an age and its people through the compelling battle of one man and shows how and why the nation’s efforts to reconstruct the South into a biracial democracy failed. Murray’s career, which spanned a quarter of a century, included two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and leadership of South Carolina’s Republican party. He was an investor as well as a landed property owner who sold tracts to poor blacks in order for them to qualify to vote. But by the beginning of the twentieth century, with his party in shambles, he found himself on trial for alleged forgery in a land deal with two of his black land purchasers. Murray was found guilty, and the South Carolina Supreme Court upheld the verdict. Sentenced to hard labor on a chain gang, he escaped to Chicago where he spent the rest of his life in obscurity. Table of Contents 8 Foreword 10 Preface 14 Acknowledgments 18 1. From Slavery to Public Life 22 2.The 1890 Election: Success and Failure 41 3. White Republicans but One Black Victory 56 4. Congressman 72 5. The Congressman Runs for Reelection 89 6. Fighting Constitutional Disfranchisement 104 7. Reaction to Disfranchisement 119 8. Political Nadir 132 9. Economic Success and Political Failure 142 10. On Trial 153 11. In Chicago and on Tour 165 Conclusion 182 Appendix: Late-Nineteenth-Century South Carolina Republican Leaders 187 Notes 192 Bibliographical Essay 222 Index 226 Born a slave in 1850s South Carolina, George Murray appeared to be the antithesis of the African American male in South. Drawing on research to reconstruct Murray's life story, this work defines an age and its people through the battle of one man and shows how the nation's efforts to reconstruct the South into a biracial democracy failed. John F. Marszalek ; Foreword By John David Smith. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [171]-203) And Index.