Greene S. W. Lewis

Greene Shadrach Washington Lewis was a leader among African Americans and a state legislator in Alabama during the Reconstruction era 1868–1876.[1] He represented Perry County, Alabama.[2]

The Montgomery Advertiser quoted him appealing for equal rights for African Americans as legislative fights in Alabama and the U.S. Congress developed. The paper and Democrats saw such Radical Republican proposals as a force to unite white voters against Republicans and their efforts to end segregation and discrimination.[3]

Delegates at the 1875 Alabama Constitutional Convention. Lewis is second from the left below Hugh A. Carson and Alexander H. Curtis at the top left

On March 4, 1873, he gave a speech addressing the civil rights bill before the house starting with a jab at the Democrats and demagogue Republicans who tried first to postpone the bill indefinitely.[4]

The Livingston Journal published in Livingston, Alabama called for action from Democrats as it described a threat to large cotton belt landowners and claimed that in the last session of the house in 1874 Lewis called for the raising of taxes to a level high enough to force the large landowners to sell, enabling him and those like him to buy.[5]

He was a Perry County, Alabama delegate to the 1875 Alabama Constitutional Convention.[6][7] Greene was listed as a district delegate for the 1876 Republican National Convention.[8]

See also

References
  1. "x-index :: Reconstruction :: Politics :: Lest We Forget". lestweforget.hamptonu.edu. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  2. "Black members of the Alabama Legislature who served during reconstruction - Alabama Historical Markers on Waymarking.com". www.waymarking.com.
  3. Friedlander, Alan; Gerber, Richard Allan (November 22, 2018). Welcoming Ruin: The Civil Rights Act of 1875. BRILL. ISBN 9789004384071 – via Google Books.
  4. "Greene Shadrach Washington Lewis speaks on The Civil Rights Bill". The Weekly Advertiser. 28 October 1874. p. 5. Retrieved 5 April 2021.open access
  5. "Lewis calls for high taxes". The Livingston Journal. 24 April 1874. p. 2. Retrieved 5 April 2021.open access
  6. Convention, Alabama Constitutional (December 29, 1875). "Journal of the Constitutional Convention of the State of Alabama: Assembled in the City of Mongtomery September 6th, 1875". W. W. Screws, State Printer – via Google Books.
  7. "The Convention - List of Delegates". The Opelika Times. 14 August 1875. p. 3. Retrieved 5 April 2021.open access
  8. "Proceedings of the Republican National Convention Held at Cincinniati, Ohio, June 14, 15, and 16, 1876". Republican Press Association. December 29, 1876 – via Google Books.
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