Alexander Kelso Davis was an American politician. He was a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives and Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi. [1] He was impeached and removed by the resurgent Democrats towards the end of the Reconstruction era in 1876. He was the first African American to serve as lieutenant governor in Mississippi. [1]
He was a lawyer from Tennessee. [2] He came to Mississippi in 1869 and lived in Noxubee County. He served in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1870 until 1873. He served as Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi from 1874, succeeding Ridgley C. Powers, and served until he resigned as he faced impeachment in 1876. Resurgent Democrats took back control and impeached him to prevent him becoming governor once they removed Governor Adelbert Ames. [3] The official allegation of his impeachment had been accepting a bribe to pardon a convicted murderer. [4] He left politics and became a pastor where he served until his death in 1884. [1] [5]
See also
- African-American officeholders during and following the Reconstruction era
- List of lieutenant governors of Mississippi
- List of minority governors and lieutenant governors in the United States
References
- ^ a b c "Alexander Kelso Davis – Against All Odds".
- ^ "Davis, Alexander K." Mississippi Encyclopedia.
- ^ Freedom's Lawmakers by Eric Foner pages xliv and 57 Louisiana State University Press 1996
- ^ "Impeachment of State Officials". www.cga.ct.gov. ORL Research. February 9, 2004. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
- ^ "Alexander K. Davis (?- 1884) •". 7 September 2020.
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- 19th-century American legislators
- Tennessee lawyers
- 1884 deaths
- Lieutenant Governors of Mississippi
- African-American state legislators in Mississippi
- Republican Party members of the Mississippi House of Representatives
- People from Noxubee County, Mississippi
- 19th-century American lawyers
- Mississippi politicians convicted of crimes
- Impeached state and territorial constitutional officers of the United States removed from office