{"id":4734,"date":"2025-05-14T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/hbcus\/?page_id=4734"},"modified":"2026-07-23T17:59:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T17:59:14","slug":"south-carolina","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/hbcus\/delegates-and-attendees\/south-carolina\/","title":{"rendered":"South Carolina"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Radical Members of the South Carolina Legislature, Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Richard H. Cain<\/strong> a missionary of the African Methodist Episcopal Church appointed to South Carolina. There, he actively participated in Reconstruction politics. He was elected both to the state senate (1868-1870) and US House of Representatives (1873-1875).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alonzo J. Ransier<\/strong> was South Carolina\u2019s first Back lieutenant governor, defeating an ex-Confederate candidate in 1870. Prior to that, he served as a member of the state\u2019s House of Representatives. In 1873, he was elected as member of the US Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robert Brown Elliott<\/strong> was a state representative (1868-1870) and assistant adjutant general of South Carolina (1869-1870). He also served two terms in the US Congress. Elliot was well-educated and a highly skilled orator. More radical than his peers, he fearlessly condemned the white terrorism, relentlessly urged Congress to protect Black civil rights, and argued against restoring the political rights of ex-Confederates [1].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wilson Cooke<\/strong> Like many of the Black South Carolinian delegates at the 1871 convention, Cooke was also an instrumental Black delegate at the 1868 Constitutional Convention of South Carolina. He was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives (1868-1870), representing Greenville County. His son, William Wilson Cooke, was the first Black person to be employed at the United States Treasury Department, working as its supervising architect [2].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

William J. Whipper<\/strong> was the nephew of businessman, Colored Conventions organizer, reformer, and activist William Whipper. William J. Whipper served in the Union army, was a lawyer, judge, and state legislator. Considered to be more revolutionary than his peers, Whipper urged delegates at the 1868 Constitutional Convention of South Carolina to amend the suffrage clause to include women. Alrutheus Ambush Taylor writes that Whipper \u201cconsidered it unjust, contemptible and wrong to deprive these intelligent beings [women] of the privileges that were common to men\u201d [3]. Whipper was married to women\u2019s rights and Black rights activist, writer, and teacher Frances Rollin, who wrote The Life and Public Services of Martin R. Delany under a male pseudonym.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benjamin A. Boseman<\/strong> was a physician who earned his degree from Maine Medical College. Boseman moved to Charleston shortly after the war. There, he carved a career as a politician, serving three terms in the state\u2019s House of Representatives. He was also appointed as a member of South Carolina College\u2019s board of trustees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joseph H. Rainey<\/strong> was a formerly enslaved person who was forced to work on Confederate fortifications until he freed himself. He fled with his wife to Bermuda and came back to South Carolina after the war. Right away, Rainey participated in Reconstruction politics, serving as a delegate at the 1868 constitutional convention. He is better known as the first Black man to serve in the US House of Representatives. Among the conventions Rainey attended were Colored National Labor Convention, held in Washington, D.C., 1869<\/a>, and National Conference of Colored Men of the United States<\/a>, Held in the State Capitol at Nashville Tennessee, 1879.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Henry E. Hayne<\/strong> was the first student of color to enroll at the University of South Carolina. Upon his admission, three professors resigned. The university\u2019s board of trustees accepted their resignation and declared that Hayne was \u201c a gentleman of irreproachable character, against whom said professor can suggest no objection except, in their opinion, his race\u201d [4]. The board subsequently declared to allow African Americans into the university. In 1877, Democrats closed down the school and reopened it three years later as South Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanics, a whites-only institution [5]. Prior to the Democratic takeover of the state, Hayne was elected to the state legislature in 1870 and served as the state\u2019s Secretary of State in 1872.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

William Beverly Nash<\/strong> was highly active in the Colored Conventions movement. Among the many conventions he attended were Colored People\u2019s Convention of the State of South Carolina in 1865<\/a>; National Convention at New Orleans, Louisiana, 1872<\/a>; and Conference of Colored Citizens, held at Columbia in 1876<\/a>. Nash was elected to the state senate in 1868.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Samuel J. Lee<\/strong> was South Carolina\u2019s first Black speaker of the house. An Independent Republican, Lee competed with Rainey for public office in the 1870s. Lee was also a successful lawyer in Charleston and served as general of the state colored militia in 1891 [6].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John White<\/strong>: No additional information available at this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frank Williamson<\/strong>: No additional information available at this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

References<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

[1] \u201cElliot, Robert Brown.\u201d History, Art & Archives United States House of Representatives<\/em>, https:\/\/history.house.gov\/People\/Detail\/12753.
[2] Bainbridge, Judith. \u201cWilliam Wilson Cooke,\u201d South Carolina Encyclopedia<\/em>, https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/entries\/cook-william-wilson\/
[3] Taylor, Alrutheus Ambus. The Negro in South Carolina During the Reconstruction<\/em>, Washington: The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1924, p. 142.
[4] Reynolds, John Schreineder. Reconstruction in South Carolina<\/em>, 1865-1877, Columbia: State Co. Publishers, 1905, 234.
[5] \u201cUniversity History,\u201d University of South Carolina, https:\/\/sc.edu\/about\/our_history\/university_history\/timeline\/index.php
[6] Burke, Lewis W. \u201cLee, Samuel J,\u201d South Carolina Encyclopedia<\/em>, https:\/\/www.scencyclopedia.org\/sce\/entries\/lee-samuel-j\/.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Credits<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Written by <\/strong>Samantha de Vera<\/a>, University of California, San Diego.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edited by<\/strong> P. Gabrielle Foreman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acknowledgements: <\/strong>Samantha de Vera and Michelle Byrnes for further edits, visualization contributions, and technical assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richard H. Cain a missionary of the African Methodist Episcopal Church appointed to South Carolina. There, he actively participated in Reconstruction politics. He was elected both to the state senate (1868-1870) and US House of Representatives (1873-1875). Alonzo J. Ransier was South Carolina\u2019s first Back lieutenant governor, defeating an ex-Confederate candidate in 1870. Prior to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":4604,"parent":4625,"menu_order":9,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4734","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/hbcus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/hbcus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/hbcus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/hbcus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/hbcus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4734"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/hbcus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4919,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/hbcus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4734\/revisions\/4919"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/hbcus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/hbcus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/hbcus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}