Albion Winegar Tourgée (May 2, 1838 – May 21, 1905) was an American soldier, Radical Republican, lawyer, judge, novelist, and diplomat. A pioneer civil rights activist, he founded the National Citizens' Rights Association and litigated for the plaintiff Homer Plessy in the famous segregation case Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). Historian Mark Elliott credits Tourgee with introducing the metaphor of "color-blind" justice into legal discourse.
After the war, Tourgée established himself as a lawyer, farmer, and editor in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he and his wife moved so he could live in a warmer climate better suited to his war injuries. An active participant as a Reconstruction Carpetbagger in his new home, Tourgée had a number of inspiring and harrowing experiences that gave him ample material and impetus for the writing he would later undertake. In 1868 he represented Guilford County at the state constitutional convention, which was dominated by Republicans. There he successfully advocated for equal political and civil rights for all citizens; ending property qualifications for jury duty and officeholding; popular election of all state officers, including judges; free public education; abolition of whipping posts for those convicted of crimes; judicial reform; and uniform taxation.
Update: A letter from Tourgee on the KKK:
Greensboro, N.C. May 24, 1870. Gen. Jos. C. Abbott-My Dear General: It is my mournful duty to inform you that our friend John W. Stephens, State Senator from Caswell, is dead. He was foully murdered by the Ku-Klux in the Grand Jury room of the Court House on Saturday or Saturday night last. The circumstances attending his murder have not yet fully come to light there. So far as I can learn, I judge these to have been the circumstances: He was one of the Justices of the Peace in that township, and was accustomed to hold court in that room on Saturdays. It is evident that he was set upon by some one while holding this court, or immediately after its close, and disabled by a sudden attack, otherwise there would have been a very sharp resistance, as he was a man, and always went armed to the teeth. He was stabbed five or six times, and then hanged on a hook in the Grand Jury room, where he was found on Sunday morning. [Continued]
Update II: Yes! Weekly editor Brian Clarey credits one of the ten best "Overlooked moments in Greensboro history" to Tourgée.
Update III: D'oh!: "One of Tourgée’s most notable contributions was his role in founding Bennett College for African Americans in Greensboro."
There is a plaque in downtown Greensboro that sketches out a biography and enumerates a number of his achievements.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to look for it. Live here a while and Greene, Cornwallis, O'Henry, Cone, Chavis, Scales, Love, Dolly Madison, and many others seep into your consciousness of historical Greensboro figures. Tourgee doesn't have that presence.
ReplyDeleteI'm a huge fan of Albion Tourge, and when I discovered his biography I was really inspired. He's a giant -- the historical link between Frederick Douglass and the founding of the NAACP.
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