caption death_date death_place birth_place nationality ethnicity birth_date image article_title name occupation
obelisk honoring gonzales near the state house 19 january 1903 columbia , south carolina edisto island , south carolina american cuban american aug. 5 , 1858 gonzalesobelisk.jpg narciso gener gonzales
 narciso gonzales newspaper editor
narciso gener gonzales

narciso gener gonzales -lrb- august 5 , 1858 -- january 19 , 1903 -rrb- was born in eddingsville , edisto island , south carolina .
he and his brother , ambrose e. gonzales , were the founders of `` the state '' newspaper in columbia , south carolina .
gonzales was the son of colonel -lrb- csa -rrb- ambrosio josé gonzales and harriet rutledge elliott .
his father was a colonel in the confederate army who played an instrumental role in the defenses of south carolina during the american civil war .
prior to this his father was a cuban revolutionary leader , who opposed oppressive spanish rule .
his mother was the daughter of the wealthy south carolina rice planter , state senator and writer , william elliott .
although his formal education ended at the age of seventeen , narciso gonzales became a telegraph operator in 1875 in order to help support his extended family .
he worked in railroad depots in varnville , south carolina , savannah , georgia , and valdosta , georgia .
while working as a telegrapher and handling news reports , he developed an interest in journalism and state politics .
in 1880 , he left the telegraph office in valdosta to become a reporter for the greenville , south carolina , `` daily news '' .
while working in varnville in 1876 , narciso gonzales had written a report on a local uprising of plantation workers and telegraphed it to the charleston , south carolina , `` journal of commerce '' .
this came to the attention of the editors of a rival newspaper , the charleston `` news and courier '' .
shortly after going to work for the greenville `` daily news '' , gonzales accepted a position as the columbia , south carolina correspondent for the `` news and courier '' .
in 1891 , narciso gonzales and his brother ambrose e. gonzales -lrb- 1857 - 1926 -rrb- founded `` the state '' newspaper in columbia , south carolina .
the paper supported a number of progressive causes ; its editorials called for an end to lynching , reform of child labor laws , and women 's suffrage .
the paper was also frequently critical of the policies of benjamin r. tillman , who had been elected governor of south carolina in 1890 .
gonzales was shot on january 15 , 1903 , by james h. tillman -lrb- nephew of `` pitchfork '' ben tillman -rrb- , the lieutenant governor of south carolina , and died four days later .
tillman escaped punishment , however .
the jury was considered rigged and highly partisan considering tillman shot gonzales in broad daylight in the presence of many eyewitnesses .
he was acquitted ostensibly on a shaky self-defense theory , but in reality because the jury believed tillman was right in taking justice into his own hands .
gonzales had waged a crusade against tillman in his newspaper , helping ensure tillman 's defeat in the 1902 south carolina governor 's race .
a memorial cenotaph for gonzales was later erected on senate street across from the state house in columbia , purportedly on the route tillman regularly walked home .
