P.B.S Pinchback, the first Black man to serve as governor of a U.S. state, was born on May 10, 1837, to a formerly enslaved mother and her former enslaver.
During the Civil War, Pinchback, who was once a riverboat gambler, was an officer in the Union Army. He entered politics in 1868 as a Louisiana state senator before becoming lieutenant governor in 1868 after the incumbent’s death.
Although blocked by white Southerners from being seated in the U.S. Senate, Pinchback was named acting governor from December 9, 1872, to January 13, 1873, while the current governor was being impeached, becoming the first African-American to govern any state. He also wrote the first civil rights bill in Louisiana.
Pinchback passed away on December 21, 1921, at 84 years old.
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