Photo provided by Bianca. Please do not use elsewhere.
Emanuel Handy (Copiah County)
State House: 1870-1873
Born: c. 1834 in Mississippi Died: December 8, 1922 in Kansas
Served with the 82nd Regiment of the U.S. Colored Troops, ending his service as a second sergeant. He was a representative at the 1868 constitutional convention, where he proposed a requirement for electors to have an “acceptance of the civil and political equality of all men.”
Handy was listed on the 1870 census in Copiah County with wife Hannah and several children. By 1880, he had moved to Kansas, where he also ran for political office. He spent the last decades of his life in Atchison, Kansas, with wife Kate and is buried there at Oak Hill Cemetery.
Handy’s great-granddaughter, D. Antoinette Handy, was a musician and professor who supported Black musicians through the grant program at the National Endowment for the Arts.
Handy’s grandsons through Emanuel Handy, Jr. Photo provided by Bianca. Please do not use elsewhere.Signature of Emanuel Handy, from an 1871 petition to Governor Alcorn
“Against All Odds: Telling the Stories of the First Black Legislators in Mississippi,” conversation with site creator DeeDee Baldwin, Albright descendant Karen Burch, and Handy descendant Bianca Ford. May 21, 2021.
Clarion-Ledger, January 18, 1868Western Reserve Chronicle, Jul 29, 1868Tri-Weekly Clarion, March 4, 1869New National Era, March 6, 1873Topeka State Journal, October 11, 1881Topeka State Journal, November 4, 1881Topeka State Journal, November 3, 1882Topeka State Capital, October 6, 1883Daily Commonwealth, October 7, 1883Leavenworth Times, January 18, 1905Topeka Daily Capital, January 15, 1906Topeka State Capital, April 17, 1907Topeka State Journal, August 16, 1907Daily Champion, December 2, 1907Daily Champion, Oct 17, 1908Brown County World, October 30, 1908Kansas-Republican, October 31, 1911Topeka State Journal, July 6, 1912Leavenworth Times, August 5, 1913Beloit Daily Call, December 12, 1914Atchison Champion, March 2, 1916Topeka Daily Capital, November 21, 1916The Negro Star, December 22, 1922Topeka Plaindealer, December 22, 1922Headstone Application for Emanuel HandyAtchison Daily Globe, February 13, 1975Atchison Daily Globe, February 20, 1975Atchison Daily Globe, February 27, 1975