Legislature of Virginia, Session 1871 and '72

Legislature of Virginia, Session 1871 and '72

African Americans, politics, Virginia General Assembly

This composite photograph includes 108 of the 132 members of the House of Delegates elected for the term that met in three sessions between December 6, 1871 and April 2, 1873. Thirteen of the African American delegates are included along the bottom row. Later group portraits of assembly members usually excluded African Americans entirely. Among the black legislators shown here, Peter Jacob Carter, first on the bottom row, was at the beginning of a distinguished career in politics. After serving in the United States Army during the Civil War, he won election to the House of Delegates four consecutive times and became a leader in the state's Republican Party. The 1871-1873 term was the second to which African American men were elected. Between 1867 and 1891, nearly one hundred black Virginians served in the two Houses of the General Assembly or in the Constitutional Convention of 1867-1868.

C. E. Rees & Co., photographer

Library of Virginia, Prints and Photographs Division

1872

Library of Virginia

CC BY-SA

Virginia Legislature Photograph Digital Collection

JPG

Composite photograph

09_0638_001_1871-1872

Virginia