Pinchback: America's First Black Governor - Hardcover

by Nicholas Patler (Author)

Born to a formerly enslaved mother and a white planter father, P. B. S. Pinchback (1837-1921) became the first African American governor in the United States. His tenure as governor of Louisiana was brief--a mere thirty-five days--but he remains one of the most prominent African American officeholders during the Reconstruction Era. Yet despite being a pivotal figure in the post-Civil War South, attempts to tell his story have been incomplete. From the deep influence of a mother who had spent half of her life in bondage, to the ambiguity of racial identity in Pinchback's life and world, to a political career that was as tumultuous and rich as any in American history, the life and career of Pinchback are far more interesting and complex than most historians have portrayed.

Author Biography

Nicholas Patler is a historian and author of Jim Crow and the Wilson Administration: Protesting Federal Segregation in the Early Twentieth Century. He holds a master's degree from Harvard University Extension School and Bethany Theological Seminary.