Greene Shadrach Washington Lewis was a leader among African Americans and a state legislator in Alabama during the
Reconstruction era 1868–1876.[1] He represented
Perry County, Alabama.[2]
The Montgomery Advertiser quoted him appealing for equal rights for African Americans as legislative fights in Alabama and the U.S. Congress developed. The paper and Democrats saw such
Radical Republican proposals as a force to unite white voters against Republicans and their efforts to end segregation and discrimination.[3]
On March 4, 1873, he gave a speech addressing the civil rights bill before the house starting with a jab at the Democrats and
demagogue Republicans who tried first to postpone the bill indefinitely.[4]
The Livingston Journal published in
Livingston, Alabama called for action from Democrats as it described a threat to large cotton belt landowners and claimed that in the last session of the house in 1874 Lewis called for the raising of taxes to a level high enough to force the large landowners to sell, enabling him and those like him to buy.[5]
He was a Perry County, Alabama delegate to the 1875 Alabama Constitutional Convention.[6][7] Greene was listed as a district delegate for the
1876 Republican National Convention.[8]