Pinchback, Pinckney

Pinchback, Pinckney (Benton Stewart)

(1837–1929) governor; born in Macon, Ga. Son of a free black mother and white father, he was educated in Ohio. He organized a Union company of black volunteers in New Orleans in 1862. As a Republican, he became president of the Louisiana Senate (1869–71), then America's first African-American governor (1872–73). He lost contested elections to the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, later earning a law degree.