Okay, so imagine you’re a Black man in 1868. The Civil War ended three years ago, the Thirteenth Amendment has been ratified by most states and you’re set to become the nation’s first Lieutenant Governor of a state. That my good Facebook buddies is the story of Oscar James Dunn.
Oscar was born into slavery in 1826, in New Orleans, Louisiana. His mother was an enslaved woman named Maria, and his father was formerly enslaved dude named James who had been freed in 1819. In 1832 my guy James had earned enough money to purchase his family’s freedom, so the Dunn family had their emancipation well before the start of the Civil War. James was a carpenter, and his former captor owned a theater that James was employed in as a carpenter. His wife Maria ran a boarding house for actors who came to perform at the many various theaters of their former abductor. The Dunn family was actually pretty financially well off compared to other Black folk at the time, and because of this Oscar got a dope education and became proficient in music, specifically the violin which he would go on to teach.
So in 1866, following the collapse of the losing-ass Confederacy, Oscar met a widow named Ellen Boyd Marchand. Ellen was born free in Ohio and came from a well-to-do Black family. The two fell in love and married. Oscar even adopted her three children. They didn’t have any themselves but something tells me the three were enough! It was during this time period where Oscar started getting REAL involved with politics. His goal was simple, the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery and Oscar wanted to see that shit implemented! He was a fervent supporter of the Universal Suffrage Movement and was also key in helping free Black folks get themselves some land and capital. My guy pointed out that since the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed equal protection under the law, then Black children should also be guaranteed tax-payer funded education.
Oscar even founded his own employment agency that helped Black folks get jobs, and established trusts and funds for Black children as well as their families. Like, dude was on a mission and looked to politics as a way of carrying that mission out. By 1867 he was running for office and was elected to the New Orleans city council. It was here that he put the tax-payer funded education for Black kids into action, it became law that very year.
In June of 1868, he ran for Lieutenant Governor and handily beat his white opponent. It wasn’t even close, 64,941 to 38,046 to be extra precise. He was in charge of a committee that oversaw a million-dollar budget, and that’s like in olden times money. He was obviously the first Black person to do any of these things, and what a bar he set. He was also serving on the board of the Metropolitan Police in a time where tensions were super high, a riot in 1866 between Black demonstrators and defeated Confederates had to be quelled by the feds.
Safe to say Oscar caught beef with a lot of his political adversaries, some didn’t like his politics, others just didn’t like that he was Black and could tell him what to do, and even more were upset about both and livid at this man’s efficacy. Well, on November 22nd, 1871, Oscar suddenly and mysteriously passed away from “Congestion of the Brain".
…he was poisoned. Look, any actual historian will point out that, “he might not have been poisoned, we can’t really prove it." But I’m just some dude on Facebook, so I’mma be real and say dude got assassinated. He was only 45 and made a habit of collecting enemies. But also, because I’m just some dude on Facebook, take all that with a grain of salt.
His funeral was attended by 50,000 people. People literally traveled from all over the country to pay their last respects to this pioneer of Black Excellence. W.E.B. Du Bois would reflect on his legacy calling Dunn “an unselfish, incorruptible leader.” And yeah, he really was. It’s amazing that right at the onset of the Reconstruction Era we had a man who was fighting for the equality we still have yet to achieve. He saw a problem and did everything in his life to try and change it, and the changes he made still affect us all today. His bravery, his political efficacy, and triumph over all odds is inspiring so today I’m saying Thank you, Oscar, Thank you!
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