district succeeded death_place death_date birth_place party preceded birth_date term article_title state name
6th henry smith van eaton chicago , illinois 2 november 1939 near vidalia , concordia parish , louisiana republican james ronald chalmers 10 september 1847 march and april 29 , 1882 - march 3 , 1883 4 , 1873 - march 4 , 1877 john r. lynch
 mississippi john roy lynch
john r. lynch

john roy lynch -lrb- september 10 , 1847 -- november 2 , 1939 -rrb- was an american politician , writer , attorney and military officer .
born into slavery , he became free in 1863 .
in 1873 he was elected as the first african-american speaker of the mississippi house of representatives .
during reconstruction after the american civil war , he was among the first generation of african americans elected to the u.s house of representatives , serving 1874-1877 and again in the 1880s .
of mixed race , he was of majority european ancestry .
after democrats regained power in the state legislature and reconstruction ended , in his 50s lynch studied law ; he was admitted to the mississippi bar in 1896 .
as the state legislature had disfranchised blacks in 1890 under the new constitution , lynch left the state and moved to washington , dc to practice law .
he served in the united states army during the spanish american war and for a decade in the early 1900s , achieving the rank of major .
after retiring , lynch moved to chicago , illinois , where he lived for more than two decades .
he was active in law and real estate in chicago after his military service .
beginning in 1877 , lynch published four books , analyzing the political situation during and after reconstruction .
he is best known for his book , `` the facts of reconstruction '' -lrb- 1913 -rrb- .
it is available for free online at the gutenberg project .
in it , he argued against the prevailing view of the dunning school , white historians who downplayed african-american contributions and the achievements of the reconstruction era .
he emphasized the significance of ratification of the 14th and 15th amendments to the constitution , which granted full citizenship without restriction of race or color , and suffrage to minority males .
