I kid, of course. I love it. But its true. I think as we learn from the key note last night, we live in the world that reconstruction made. And so the very important that we sort of grapple with and try to understand this period in our history. And we havent really had that kind of reckoning yet. Maybe this is our opportunity to do so. You can say what you want about the centennial of the civil war, but it happened. We didnt have a centennial of reconstruction. We werent here in 1966 sort of talking about this. Maybe it was too soon then. But hopefully not now. Today im excited to introduce our panelists who are going to challenge us to think more broadly about the who, the where, the how of the processes that sort of constituted reconstruction. As a public historian or someone that sort of calls himself a public historian, im particularly gratified also that we have the opportunity to engage with you, a broader public, in this discussion. One of the aft heard la meants among historians is how little of all of our scholarship or the scholarship on reconstruction has made it into the public consciousness. Here is maybe our opportunity to do something about that. So lets get on to it. Our first speaker today is lewis burke. Hes a distinguished professor ameasure tulls at university of South Carolina school of law. Emeritus at university of South Carolina school of law. Hes edited four books, including at freedoms door, africanamerican Founding Fathers and lawyers, and reconstruction South Carolina. Currently hes completing a history of black lawyers in South Carolina, which will be published by the university of georgia press. Hell share some of that research with us today. After that, were going to hear from Elsa Barkley Brown at the university of maryland. College park. Her articles have appeared in feminist studies, history workshop, public culture, the journal of urban history, the list it can go on and on. If youve ever had the opportunity to read any of dr. Browns writing, you will know and appreciate how deftly she integrates complex theory into tudies of day to day life. I look forward to hearing from her. And well hear from stacy smith, society profess ever of history. She specializes in the history of American West and the civil war and reconstruction eras and her scholarship strives to integrate these two periods. By examining the plecksexis complexities of slavery and the black struggle in the 19th century. Shes writter of freedoms frontier, california, and the strug of of struggle of reconstruction and currently shes working on a book on africanamerican abolitionists and Civil Rights Activists in the pacific west entitled empire of freedom. We thought wed structure it this morning, were going to hear from each of our panelists, give a short discussion of sort of their vision of the field or their portion of it. And well have a discussion amongst ourselves about some of those points and we ultimately want to open it up to a discussion with you all also. Thats where well go ultimately. Lewis burke. Mr. Burke good morning. As aaron said, my work is being drawn from a book that will be published hopefully next year by the university of georgia press. The title of the book is all for civil rights, africanamerican lawyers in South Carolina, 1868 to 1968. In nd 168 black lawyers that century. 69 of those lawyers were admitted in that nineyear period that was formal reconstruction in South Carolina. Almost 25 of the lawyers admitted by the South CarolinaSupreme Court during reconstruction were africanamericans. Imagine the states where it had been against the law for africanamerican slaves to learn to read and write, they could not testify in court against a white person, they could never testify under oath. It was here in this remarkable period, a quarter of the bar was africanamerican. These men came from the ranks of the union army, the American Missionary Association and the friedmans bureau agents, at least initially. Jonathan jasper wright, who read law in pennsylvania, came first, as a missionary. Then became a friedmans bureau agent. As an agenda, he was charged with resolving disputes and educating the freed people, particularly in bureauford county. In his role as an agent, in 1867 alone, he heard 300 cases. Most of these cases were between Community Folks fighting over debts, livestock, crops, family issues, but some were against White Planters who were mistreating the workers d wright was vigilant in seeking compensation for those workers. The pro voice courts, when the friedmans bureau of courts closed in 17867, the militarys provost courts became the venue for resolving disputes. It was here that exunion soldier william j. Whipper, a native of pennsylvania who had studied law in detroit, first practiced. His first recorded case was in the summer of 1866. On july 20, the charleston daily news reported that whipper was trying casing in cases in that court. The next month, whipper was before that court suing the local charleston merchant for violation of the federal civil rights laws. For refusing service to a black soldier. Now, whipper was unsuccessful in that lawsuit, but it was probably the first public accommodation suit lawsuit in South Carolina history. And maybe one of the first in the United States. In 1868 the state Constitutional Convention adopted the states first modern constitution, the majority of the delegates there were black. Among these were three lawyers. Wright, whipper and robert brown eliott. And six other men who would ultimately become lawyers. The new constitution, as we know, is a revolutionary document. Establishing the first Public Schools, granting civil rights, granting the vote of all citizens to all males over the age of 21 years of age. William j. Whipper, however, made a motion that the word male be stricken and substitute every citizen. The record of the convention simply notes that whippers motion was decided in the negative, as we would all guess. [laughter] elected to the legislature in 1868 and to other public offices, whipper, wright and eliott, they were leaders of the legislation. Whipper was in fact the first chair of the Judiciary Committee under the new constitution and pushed for civil rights legislation. In that first session, they wrote and enacted the states first civil rights statute. That session also ratified the 15th amendment, abolished capital punishment, accept in cases of except in cases of willful murder. He also later the Legislature Also elected jonathan j. Wright to the South CarolinaSupreme Court, becoming the first africanamerican South Carolina justice in american history. They also elected two black lawyers to serve on a special court in charleston called the criminal court, which heard all noncapital felony cases in charleston. These lawyers also played a significant role in educating the community. Probably the most common newspaper article that i would find during reconstruction, where one of these lawyers was mentioned, was when they were the key note speaker at an emancipation day celebration, a fourth of July Celebration or a Republican Party event or a campaign event. Where they almost unbearably addressed civil rights issues. Robert brown eliott and Francis Lewis cardoza were leaders of the union league. They held meetings in which they read the constitution and the amendments in the civil rights statutes to the community. So they can be educated about those rights. Now, i am a lawyer, im not a historian, so the focus, one of the main focuses of my research and of this book that ive done, is ive been trying to look at the law practice of these lawyers. County and state records are fairly in are hit and miss. Theyre incomplete, absent in some counties, but from those records we know that black lawyers practiced in at least 16 counties in the state during reconstruction. Nine counties with pretty good records, those are ones that ill briefly talk about. The earliest cases in the state courts were in Georgetown County in 1869, interestingly enough, william j. Whipper was the lawyer found there. He tried four cases in 18 criminal cases in georgetown in 1869. He got three not guilty verdicts and one client was convicted. He had no civil trials, no other black lawyer had any civil cases in Georgetown County. Whipper tried cases in bufford, as well as five other counties and robert brown eliott also rode circuit around the state trying cases. In fact, with two exceptions, most black lawyers appeared almost exclusively in criminal cases. Charleston county had eight practicing black lawyers, charleston records are in some cases good, others very incomplete. But ive only found three civil cases tried by black lawyers during the entire reconstruction period. But these lawyers had 63 criminal cases on the trial dockets in charleston. Whipper had 23, winning a majority of those cases. Lewis tail heir 22 case taylor had 22 cases, but he lost 14 times. Four other lawyers tried about 20 cases and won about half of those. Or they did win more than half of those. In bufford, the records, there really are no public records. Its from newspapers that you have to ferret out what happened in the courts. During reconstruction i found only two civil cases mentioned that were tried by black lawyers in bufford county. William whipper and thomas wheel were were cow wheeler were cow counsel in those cases and won both. On the other hand, whipper had six criminal cases, all were found not guilty, including the three charged with murder. Thomas wheeler won eight out of the nine criminal trials he tried. In total, the black bar and bufford had 29 not guilty verdicts, one hung jury and six guilty verdicts during reconstruction. Marl bro county had two black lawyers, john green lost his only two trials, but county senator henry j. Maxwell tried 28 criminal cases, although 16 of his clients were found guilty. In newberry, will thomas and Joseph Boston appeared in over 20 criminal trials and had only one client found guilty. In williamsburg county, the state senator had only one civil case. He won seven and lost seven of his criminal trials. The only exception of lawyers who had any significant number of civil cases is in akin county. Samuel j. Lee and clyde had 60 cases on the civil trial calendars. Lee only won two of those civil trials and lost five. The others were settled or continued. However, lee and clyde and the association with robert brown eliott had 60 criminal cases on the calendar in akin county. Out of all these cases, they obtained not guilty verdicts or dismissals in 24 cases. They had five i mean, 12 clients found guilty. Now, ive spouted a lot of numbers at you and thrown this, but the remarkable thing to me, when i look back at my research of s the amazing number black lawyers there were during reconstruction. 49. Nearly 25 of the states bar. Now, that even surprised me, after having spent all this time doing this research. However, what has really become the theme of my book, in many cases, its been that these lawyers have been primarily criminal defense lawyers. Why . Well, theyre black clients their black clients simply did not have the money, nor the type of dispute that would require the use of the states civil courts. There are no surviving recordses of our small claims courts, what we know as a Magistrates Court today or it was called a Justice Courts it was called Justice Courts in reconstruction. Those are not courts of record so theyre not expected to have records and ive not found any. But even if these civil disputes were taken by the Africanamerican Community and those, its unlikely they would have had a lawyer because paying a lawyer to resolve those small disputes would have been unusual. But i think black lawyers were criminal defense lawyers by necessity. We all know that the newly freed people in South Carolina were under assault by the white minority. The whites controlled the jobs, they had the klan and other means of assaulting freedom. And freedom was constantly under assault. We hear today about black lives matter and the new jim crow and all these things. Thats an its an old, old story. Black people were prosecuted and persecuted for racial and political reasons. Black lawyers tried criminal cases because it was a type of work needed by their client community. Now, i find it also really amazing how successful these lawyers were. I think they were clearly highly competent. There are no surviving jury arguments, there are no transcripts that you can read to discover just how eloquent and they are. In some cases youll see a newspaper article about how whipper brought a jury to tears and youll find an a story about a white mob beating up Thomas Miller after he got his client off. They had an impact. And i think their impact was because they were highly competent. By todays standards, imagine a criminal defense lawyer who got more than 50 of his murdered clients off. That would be the richest lawyer in america. [laughter] but that was whippers record. During reconstruction. In three counties, 71 of the rials tried by black lawyers ended in not guilty verdicts and all of the other counties i looked at, when you count hung juries and dismissals, the rate is about 58 of the clients got off. So thats a Pretty Amazing record. These lawyers, i think, of course were quite competent and that is one of the main reasons they were so successful. But you also have to look at the community. Who was the community . An Africanamerican Community in most of these counties. This was a majority black state. Who were the jurors . They were majority black juries. In some cases all black juries. When clients need lawyers, they want lawyers they can trust, they want lawyers who look like them and sound like them and feel like them. And so the not surprising that clients would hire black lawyers. Its not surprising that they would want a lawyer that looked like the jury thats going to be tried before them. And in fact, there are at least two murder defendants, white murder defendants, who hired William Whipper to represent them and he succeeded in not guilty and getting both of hose defendants off. These numbers, you know, theyre kind of dry, but to me message that a these lawyers were civil rights lawyers. They were the first civil rights lawyers. Doing criminal defense work meant asserting freedom. Meant protecting freedom. And i think they were successful and competent lawyers by preserving their clients freedom during this period. Thank you. Ms. Brown the work i have done is to work to explore what scholars call an ethos of mutuality and ill talk about that. Its shaped africanamericans in the immediate postcivil war, their interactions and understandings, particularly in relationship to politics and to political participation. So by ethos of mutuality, i mean an idea of interdependence , of thinking of ones self, ones life, ones goals as having to work interdependently with other people. And thinking about the ways in which that often contradicted what the larger societies ideas were and lectures to freed people were about needing to develop themselves as citizens by thinking about themselves, particularly africanamerican men, think being themselves as independent and selfmade men. So i want to sort of think about the ways in which africanamericans approached politics in the immediate povet civil war period, and im going to do so postcivil war period and im going to do so by principally looking at virginia, which what i study, but with some reference to South Carolina as well. And i want to recap some of what ive written about this participation and think about this, as i said, in relationship to politics but perhaps in the conversation we can also think about how this ethos of mutuality shaped particular ideas about relationships between africanamerican men, women and children. In other arenas, economic and family arenas, not just in politics. So my goal is to think about how approaches to politics and notions of gender in relationship to politics developed in the povet civil war and reconstruction postcivil war and reconstruction era. m going to begin in 1867. Southern states were required, in order for full restitution to the union, that they have a Constitutional Convention and rewrite their constitutions. And i want to begin with those Constitutional Conventions and in this instance begin with the Constitutional Convention. The Republican Convention prior to the state Constitutional Convention, and the Constitutional Convention in virginia. The Republican State Convention ened on august 1, 1867, in richmond. Sis ere constituents across the state were to have elected delegates to the Republican State Convention and africanamerican communities had elected their delegates to the Republican State Convention. This convention was being held in the First African Baptist Church in richmond, virginia. And when the co