Jeremiah Haralson | |
|---|---|
 Haralsonc. 1875 | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromAlabama's1st district | |
| In office March 4, 1875 – March 3, 1877 | |
| Preceded by | Frederick Bromberg |
| Succeeded by | James Jones |
| Member of theAlabama Senate from the 21st district | |
| In office 1872–1875 | |
| Member of theAlabama House of Representatives fromDallas County | |
| In office 1870–1872 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1846-04-01)April 1, 1846 |
| Political party | Republican |
| Children | 1 son |
| Disappeared | 25 May 1895(1895-05-25) (aged 49) Albany,New York,United States |
Jeremiah Haralson (April 1, 1846 – disappeared 25 March 1895)[1] was a politician from Alabama who served as a state legislator and was among the first tenAfrican-American United States Congressmen. Born into slavery inColumbus, Georgia, Haralson became self-educated while enslaved inSelma, Alabama. He was a leader amongfreedmen after the American Civil War.
He became active in politics, being elected as a Republican to the State House and the State Senate fromDallas County, Alabama. He was elected in 1874 and served in theUnited States House of Representatives, representingAlabama's 1st congressional district in the44th United States Congress.
The conservative Democrats gained control of the state legislature andgerrymandered several districts. In 1876 Haralson was forced to run from the changedAlabama's 4th congressional district, the only one still having a majority-black population. Running as an independent against the Republican candidate,James T. Rapier, Haralson essentially split the Republican vote. Dallas County SheriffCharles M. Shelley, a Democrat, won the seat with 38% of the vote.
Although not successful in gaining elective office again, Haralson was appointed to Republican patronage positions in the Customs Service, Department of Interior, and the Pension Bureau in Washington, DC.
After 1884, he returned to the South. He was convicted of pension fraud in 1894. He appeared to vanish from the historical record upon imprisonment in New York.[1]
Born into slavery on the plantation of John Walker nearColumbus, Georgia, Haralson was self-educated.[2][page needed] He was sold on the auction block in Columbus to J.W. Thompson.[3]
When Thompson died, Jeremiah was sold to JudgeJonathan Haralson who later was a president of theSouthern Baptist Convention, ofSelma, Alabama.[2] This was the county seat ofDallas County, which had a majority-black population both before and after the Civil War. Jeremiah was enslaved until 1865. While a slave, he became a preacher.[4]
After emancipation, Haralson taught himself to read and write and worked for a time as a farmer. He became involved in politics. In 1868 he campaigned for DemocratHoratio Seymour to defeat RepublicanUlysses S. Grant for president. Some ex-Confederates questioned his sincerity, as mostfreedmen were supporting the Republican Party ofAbraham Lincoln, who had gained their emancipation.[5]
Some sources say that Haralson was a candidate for U.S. Congress in 1868. But the official results do not list him as a candidate. He would have been running from the Alabama First District, which reported 100% of votes for one candidate, so they may have conducted a primary in which he was defeated.[6]
In 1870 Haralson allied with the Republican Party, but he maintained a network with some Democratic leaders. Republicans were suspicious of Haralson because of his friendships with Democrats such asJefferson Davis, former president of the Confederacy; Rep.Lucius Q. C. Lamar of Mississippi, and Georgia SenatorJohn B. Gordon, who was later elected as governor of that state.[5]
In 1870 Haralson was elected as a Republican and the first black member of theAlabama House of Representatives. In 1872, he was elected to the State Senate from the Twenty-First District. He helped get a civil rights bill through the Senate during his term and was considered politically powerful.[7]
He backed RepublicanUlysses S. Grant for president in 1872. His pro-Grant stance brought him into disputes withLouisiana governorP. B. S. Pinchback, who served for 30 days following the suspension ofHenry Warmoth during impeachment proceedings because of the disputed gubernatorial election in that state in1872.
In 1874, Haralson was elected as aRepublican fromAlabama's 1st congressional district, which then included both Selma and Mobile, to theForty-fourth U.S. Congress (March 4, 1875 - March 3, 1877). His election was contested by Liberal RepublicanFrederick G. Bromberg. Haralson asked Judge Jonathan Haralson, his former master, to advocate his cause. The judge agreed and contacted his friends (former Confederates and current Democrats) serving in Congress. With the judge's advocacy, Haralson was accepted into the House of Representatives in March 1875.[7] As a member of Congress, Haralson sought a general amnesty for former Confederates (who had been temporarily barred from office) in order to help create harmony between blacks and whites.[citation needed]
Haralson's oratorical abilities drew the commendation ofFrederick Douglass, an established civil rights leader in the North. Douglass described Haralson as speaking “with humor enough in him to supply a half dozen circus clowns.”[7]
In 1876 Haralson ran for reelection. Due to redistricting by the state legislature to accomplish gerrymandering, he was running forAlabama's 4th congressional district, which then had a black majority. Election campaigns in the 1870s had been violent as Democrats sought to regain political control of the state, using fraud, intimidation and physical violence to suppress the black vote, because of the black-majority or near-majority population in many counties, who were voting for Republican candidates.
Former congressmanJames T. Rapier, who was also African American, had bought a plantation in this district. This was the only remaining Alabama district in which the black population still comprised a majority population. Rapier won the Republican primary and thus the nomination, but Haralson ran as an independent. Their competition split the black Republican vote: Haralson received 33.93% of the vote, more than Rapier's 28%. But the Democratic candidateCharles M. Shelley, former Dallas County Sheriff, won the seat with 38% of the vote.
Haralson ran against Shelley again in 1878. He received 42.57% of the vote, or 6,545 votes, and was defeated again. This was considerably lower than the 8,675 he had received two years before, showing the effects of Democratic suppression of the black Republican vote.
In 1879, Haralson was appointed by PresidentRutherford B. Hayes to a Federal patronage position in the United States customhouse inBaltimore, Maryland.[5] He was later employed as a clerk at theDepartment of the Interior. Appointed on August 12, 1882, to thePension Bureau inWashington, D.C.; he served until August 21, 1884.
Haralson moved toLouisiana, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits. He moved toArkansas in 1891, where he served as pension agent. He was indicted and convicted on charges of pension fraud in 1894. Haralson vanishes from the historical record upon entering the Albany County Penitentiary inAlbany, New York on March 25, 1895 at the age of 49.[1]
In 1870, Jeremiah Haralson married Ellen Norwood; they had a son, Henry, born in 1871.[8] In 1885,Booker T. Washington proudly announced that Henry was a student atTuskegee Institute, where Washington was president.[9]
Anecdotal evidence compiled in theBiographical Directory of the United States Congress reported that he moved to Texas, then Oklahoma and Colorado, worked as a coal miner and was killed by wild animals while hunting nearDenverc. 1916.[7] However, no corroborating evidence has been found for either his Western travels or his unusual death, leaving his fate an unsolved mystery.[10]
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromAlabama's 1st congressional district March 4, 1875 – March 3, 1877 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
