Lynch, James, 1839-1872

James D. Lynch was Mississippi’s first African American secretary of state. Born in 1839 in Baltimore, Maryland, Lynch’s father was a white merchant and his mother enslaved. He received an education as a child at the African Methodist Episcopal Church and later attended Kimball Union Academy in New Hampshire. Lynch moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, and studied for the ministry, becoming a preacher in Galena, Illinois.

During the Civil War, Lynch married Lugenia Rice and traveled to Beaufort, South Carolina, to assist recently freed people in Union-occupied territory. In 1865, he was among twenty Black religious leaders who met with federal officials, including Union general William Tecumseh Sherman, to generate support for the economic security of former slaves. After the war, Lynch continued to work for the rights of African Americans in the former Confederacy, establishing schools and churches in Georgia and South Carolina. He moved to Mississippi in 1868 to expand the Methodist Episcopal Church.

While in Mississippi, Lynch’s interests turned to politics. He joined the Republican Party and advocated for a new state constitution, taking over the newspaper Jackson Colored Citizen to help promote his causes. Quickly rising to prominence, Lynch was elected secretary of state in 1869, becoming the first black man to hold that position in Mississippi. He gained support among many Mississippians for his efforts to improve public education, and won reelection in 1871. The following year, he served as a delegate to the National Republican Convention.

Lynch died in 1872 due to kidney disease and pneumonia. He was only 34 years old. Mississippi officials held a state funeral for him, attesting to his status and the respect he had earned among other state leaders. Lynch is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson, Mississippi. (Wikipedia; FindaGrave)