Property & Politics

ID: 2912 ~ Source: “John Mitchell.” Photograph. State Preservation Board. https://lrl.texas.gov/legeLeaders/members/memberdisplay.cfm?memberID=4517; Lucko, Paul M. “Mitchell, John (1837-1921).” Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. April 1, 1995. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/mitchell-john.
This file appears in: Shep Mullens
Property & Politics

In 1846, when John Mitchell arrived a freed man in Texas, he was a farmer and owned property valued at $3,750, making him the wealthiest Black member of the Twelfth Legislature. In 1878, he ran with the Greenback party for the United States House of Representatives but lost the election. As a Texas legislator, he represented Burleson, Brazos, and Milam counties, and later, Burleson and Washington counties in the Fourteenth Legislature.

This file appears in: Shep Mullens

By Allie Roberts
At the end of the Civil War, a new nation seemed to be on the horizon. Emancipation and the beginning of Reconstruction signaled a shift in national, state, and local institutions across the country. The Reconstruction Era, though certainly flawed,…