Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback

Governor P. B. S. Pinchback (1837-1921), the son of a white planter and a former slave, was born in Georgia and reared in Mississippi. During the Civil War and after the fall of New Orleans, he recruited the first set of Black volunteer soldiers for the Union Army in Louisiana, known as the 1st Louisiana Native Guards, and served as its first Captain. After the war, he served as Louisiana's Lieutenant Governor and became the first African-American Governor of Louisiana, holding that office briefly from 1872-1873 during Reconstruction. He was later elected by the Louisiana Legislature as U. S. Senator. Even after Reconstruction formally ended in 1877, he remained influential in state politics and persuaded Governor Francis T. Nicholls to include language in the state constitution of 1879 creating Southern University, and he later served on the board of that institution for African-Americans. He resided for a short time in Alexandria in 1872-1873. Rapides Parish was also closely connected to two nationally known governors: Governor Earl Kemp Long, who lived on Hill Street in Alexandria from 1954 to 1956, and Governor James Houston "Jimmie" Davis, who began his international performance career on the steps of Alexandria City Hall in the early 1920's.

Alexandria, Louisiana · United States