Question: Which Reconstruction Era politician from namesake Pennsylvania county was known to fight against slavery and discrimination against African-Americans?

Context paragraphs:
William H. Ash: William Horace Ash (born 1859, died 1908) was an African-American politician and former slave.  He was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates during the 1887–1888 session.  In 2012 he was one of several African-Americans recognized by the MLK Commission and the Virginia Senate for being elected to the Virginia General Assembly during the Reconstruction Era.

Reconstruction Era National Monument: The Reconstruction Era National Monument is a United States National Monument in Beaufort County, South Carolina established by President Barack Obama in January 2017 to preserve and commemorate activities during the Reconstruction Era that followed the American Civil War.  The monument is the first national monument dedicated to the Reconstruction era.  It is administered by the National Park Service.

Mattie J. Jackson: Mattie Jane Jackson (January 1847 –  February 5, 1910) was an African-American author.  She is known for her 1866 autobiography, "The Story of Mattie J. Jackson: Her Parentage, Experience of Eighteen Years in Slavery, Incidents During the War, Her Escape from Slavery: A True Story", which contributed to the national knowledge of African-American family life during slavery and the reconstruction era of the United States.  Her autobiography presents the history of multi-generational familial relationships and their inner strength, despite repeated, forced separation.  A copy of the manuscript is held in trust at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Thaddeus Stevens: Thaddeus Stevens (April 4, 1792 – August 11, 1868) was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania and one of the leaders of the Radical Republican faction of the Republican Party during the 1860s.  A fierce opponent of slavery and discrimination against African-Americans, Stevens sought to secure their rights during Reconstruction, in opposition to President Andrew Johnson.  As chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee during the American Civil War, he played a leading role, focusing his attention on defeating the Confederacy, financing the war with new taxes and borrowing, crushing the power of slave owners, ending slavery, and securing equal rights for the Freedmen.

William Archibald Dunning: William Archibald Dunning (12 May 1857–25 August 1922) was an American historian and political scientist at Columbia University noted for his work on the Reconstruction era of the United States.  He founded the informal Dunning School of interpreting the Reconstruction era through his own writings and the Ph.D. dissertations of his numerous students.  Historian Howard K. Beale was a leader of the "revisionist" school of the 1930s that broke with the Dunning interpretation.  Beale says the Dunning School broke new ground by escaping the political polemics of the day and used "meticulous and thorough research [...] in an effort to determine the truth rather than prove a thesis."  Beale states that, "The emphasis of the Dunning school was upon the harm done to the South by Radical Reconstruction and on the sordid political and economic motives behind Radicalism."  However, Dunning has also been criticized for his "blatant use of the discipline of history for reactionary ends" and for offering "scholarly legitimacy to the disenfranchisement of southern blacks and to the Jim Crow system."

Penn Center (Saint Helena Island, South Carolina): The Penn Center, formerly the Penn School, is an African-American cultural and educational center near Frogmore, South Carolina, on Saint Helena Island.  Founded in 1862 by missionaries from Pennsylvania, it was the first school founded in the Southern United States specifically for the education of African-Americans.  It provided critical educational facilities to Gullah slaves freed after plantation owners fled the island, and continues to fulfill an educational mission.  The campus was designated a National Historic Landmark District in 1974.  Darrah Hall and Brick Baptist Church on the campus were declared part of Reconstruction Era National Monument in January 2017.

Charles H. Pearce: Charles H. Pearce (1817-1887) was an African-American political and religious elder in Florida from 1865 until his death.  He helped bring the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church to Florida and worked to build its congregation during and after the Reconstruction Era.  He also built political power through the expanding congregation, held several offices, was influential in his support (and in some cases opposition to others seeking office or in office), and established educational institutions and won state support of the education for all Floridians.  He was a prominent black officeholder in the post-Civil War era, a time when threats, the KKK, and animosity to freed blacks was high.  Pearce stated that, "A man in this State, cannot do his whole duty as a minister except he looks out for the political interests of his people."  In an act of political payback, he was disqualified as an elector on the Hayes and Wheeler ticket after a felony conviction for offering a bribe.  There were other efforts to dispute and prevent the seating of black electors.  Pearce had rivals within the AME church and among the leaders of the Baptist Church in Florida.  Among his work to establish schools for African-Americans, Pearce helped establish the predecessor to what became Edward Waters College.

Sexual racism: Sexual racism is the "sexual rejection of the racial minority, the conscious attempt on the part of the majority to prevent interracial cohabitation."  It is the discrimination between potential sexual or romantic partners on the basis of perceived racial identity.  However, not everyone agrees that this should be classified as racism, some argue that distinguishing among partners on the basis of perceived race is not racism at all but a justifiable personal preference.  The origins of sexual racism can be explained by looking at its history, especially in the USA, where the abolition of slavery and the Reconstruction Era had significant impacts on interracial mixing.  Attitudes towards interracial relationships, and indeed marriage, have increased in positivity in the last 50 years.  In 1968, 73% of US citizens disapproved of the right to marry inter-racially, whereas this figure dropped to 17% by 2007, this illustrating the reduction in discriminatory attitudes towards interracial dating.  Irrespective of this, there still remains the issue of sexual racism in the online dating world, in that preferences appear to follow a racial hierarchy.  The exclusion of races dissimilar to one's own is a main feature of sexual racism, however a reluctance to date inter-racially predominantly spans from the discriminatory views often possessed by those in society, as opposed to purely a same-race individual preference.  Moreover, this racial discrimination also deviates into the form of the sexual dehumanisation of individuals of other racial identities.  Sharing the basic premise, originating from the 'taboo' nature of interracial relations, individuals of other racial groups are classified as forbidden sexual objects; the result of a racial fetish.  This sexualised reductionism is, concurrently, a form of sexual racism.

Self-Taught: Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom is a book that tells the history of African American self-education from slavery through the Reconstruction Era.  It was written by history professor Heather Andrea Williams and published in 2007 by the University of North Carolina Press.

Stevens County, Kansas: Stevens County (standard abbreviation: SV) is a county located in the U.S. state of Kansas.  As of the 2010 census, the county population was 5,724.  Its county seat is Hugoton.  The county is named for the Reconstruction era Pennsylvania politician Thaddeus Stevens.

Supporting paragraphs: Stevens County, Kansas Thaddeus Stevens
Answer: Thaddeus Stevens