Benjamin F. Royal
Benjamin F. Royal was a state senator in Alabama during the Reconstruction era. He was elected to the state senate in 1868, and was the first African American to serve in the chamber.[1] He represented Bullock County and served for nine years.[2][3] He served as a Republican, and had stated that "he could as well be an infidel as to be anything else than a Republican".[4] He was a Union League organizer.[5]
He was born to a white father and a mother who had been a slave.[3] He married a woman named Harriet on February 9, 1868 in Bullock County. The couple had one daughter.
In 1872, he and other Alabama state senators were photographed on the capitol steps. The photograph is held by the Alabama Department of Archives and History.[6]
References
[edit]- ^ "Alabama Senate". Encyclopedia of Alabama.
- ^ "African-American Legislators in Reconstruction Alabama" (PDF). Alabama Department of Archives and History. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 3, 2022. Retrieved February 28, 2021.
- ^ a b "Race no barrier to those who love". The Montgomery Advertiser. June 7, 1995. p. 15. Retrieved February 28, 2021.
- ^ "Senator B. F. Royal if Bullock". The Weekly Huntsville Advocate. December 4, 1873. p. 2. Retrieved February 28, 2021.
- ^ Bailey, Richard (2010). Neither Carpetbaggers nor Scalawags: Black Officeholders During the Reconstruction of Alabama, 1867-1878. ISBN 9781588381897.
- ^ "Archives/Five: 1872 Alabama Senate Reconstruction Photograph (Video) | Alabama Blogs & Entertainment".