Henry Mayson

Henry Mayson (Hinds County)

State House: 1870-1873

Born: c. 1835 in Mississippi

Worked as a barber before he entered politics after emancipation. Established a newspaper called The Colored Citizen in 1867. In the newspaper’s prospectus, published in the Clarion-Ledger on May 8, 1867, Mayson said, “I will advocate freely and fearlessly their [freedmen] civil and political equality.”

Delegate to the 1868 state constitutional convention. Appointed in 1870 to head the Hinds County board of school directors. Corresponding secretary for the Jackson Baptist Association. Appointed to the Lawrence County board of registration in 1879 and an election commissioner in 1883.

Listed on the 1870 census in Hinds County and on the 1880, 1900, and 1910 census in Lawrence County.

“A native of Mississippi, Mayson (whose name was also spelled Mason) was secretary of the 1865 black convention at Vicksburg. He was active in black meetings in the city, in organizing a ‘school committee,’ and in attempting to obtain land for freedmen.
(Eric Foner, Freedom’s Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders during Reconstruction, 1993)

“The first successful black newspaper in Mississippi began in 1867, when Henry Mayson of Vicksburg established the Colored Citizen… No known copy of Mason’s paper survives.”
(Julius E. Thompson, The Black Press in Mississippi, 1865-1985, 1993)

Links:
Mississippi State Convention of Colored Men, 1865

Signature of Henry Mayson
Signature of Henry Mayson
Weekly Flag of the Union, Dec 23, 1857
Vicksburg Journal, September 10, 1865
Vicksburg Herald, November 2, 1865
Clarion-Ledger, May 8, 1867
Clarion-Ledger, May 9, 1867
Freedmen's School Report, July 8, 1867
Freedmen’s School Report, July 8, 1867
Weekly Democrat, September 21, 1867
Vicksburg Daily Times, February 5, 1868
Clarion-Ledger, May 12, 1868
Clarion-Ledger, May 12, 1868
Tri-Weekly Clarion, April 27, 1869
Vicksburg Herald, June 5, 1869
Tri-Weekly Clarion, June 5, 1869
Tri-Weekly Clarion, June 12, 1869
Tri-Weekly Clarion, July 10, 1869
Tri-Weekly Clarion, July 29, 1869
Hinds County Gazette, Aug 4, 1869
Hinds County Gazette, August 4, 1869
Tri-Weekly Clarion, November 6, 1869
Weekly Mississippi Pilot, January 1, 1870
Clarion-Ledger, October 22, 1870
Hinds County Gazette, August 23, 1871
Clarion-Ledger, October 5, 1871
Weekly Mississippi Pilot, August 7, 1875
Letter to Governor Ames, Sep 24, 1875
Letter to Governor Ames, Sep 24, 1875
Daily Mississippi Pilot, October 26, 1875
Clarion-Ledger, August 29, 1877
Vicksburg Herald, September 11, 1877
Vicksburg Evening Post, August 16, 1883
Vicksburg Evening Post, March 3, 1887