Pickney Benton Stewart Pinchback 1872-73

Born: May 10, 1837 in Macon, Georgia
Political Affiliation: Republican
Religious Affiliation: African Methodist Episcopal
Education: Gilmore School (Cincinnati); studied law at Straight University (New Orleans)
Career Prior to Term: Union Army Officer, Lt. Governor
How He Became Governor: Became acting Lt. Governor upon death of Dunn; became Governor upon suspension of Warmouth and then became the first African American to serve as a governor of a state of the United States
Career after Term: State Board of Education, Internal Revenue Agent, member of Southern University Board of Trustees
Died: December 21, 1921 in Washington, DC

Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback, the son of a Mississippi white planter and a freed slave, became active in Republican Party politics in Louisiana as a delegate in the Republican state convention of 1867 and to the Constitutional Convention of 1868.

Pinchback became Lieutenant Governor under Henry Clay Warmoth when Oscar Dunn died. After Warmoth was impeached, Pinchback became Governor. He held office for only 35 days, but ten acts of the Legislature became law during that time.

After William Pitt Kellogg took office as a result of the controversial election of 1872, Pinchback continued his career, holding various offices including a seat on the State Board of Education, Internal Revenue agent and as a member of the Board of Trustees of Southern University.

Pinchback helped establish Southern University when, in the Constitutional Convention of 1879, he pushed for the creation of a college for blacks in Louisiana.

Pinchback and his family moved to Washington and then New York where he was a Federal Marshal. He later moved back to Washington to practice law and died there in 1921. Pinchback is buried in Metairie.

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