James J. Spelman

Dr. James J. Spelman (Madison County)

State House: 1870-1875

Born: January 18, 1841 in Norwich, CT
Died: May 25, 1894 in Jackson, MS

Journalist. Appointed major in the Madison County militia in 1873. See Wikipedia entry for more extensive biography.

“Born in Norwich, Connecticut, Spelman was educated in public schools there and in New York City. On the eve of the Civil War, he worked as a correspondent for the Anglo-African in New York and contributed to other black newspapers… He came to Mississippi in 1868 as an employee of the Freedmen’s Bureau and a correspondent for the New York Tribune. With James D. Lynch, he published the Jackson Colored Citizen, around 1868-70.”
(Eric Foner, Freedom’s Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders during Reconstruction, 1993)

Signature of James J. Spelman
Signature of James J. Spelman

Links:
Wikipedia entry on James J. Spelman
National Convention of the Colored Men of America, 1869

Hinds County Gazette, June 7, 1871
Weekly Louisianian, April 11, 1872
Times-Picayune, April 12, 1872
New National Era, April 3, 1873
Clarion-Ledger, October 2, 1873
Petition to Governor Ames, Feb 12, 1874
Petition to Governor Ames, Feb 12, 1874
American Citizen, August 8, 1874
Clarion-Ledger, March 4, 1875
Chronicle-Star, March 13, 1875
Canton Mail, March 13, 1875
Canton Mail, April 10, 1875
Canton Mail, June 5, 1875
The American Citizen, April 1, 1876
Clarion-Ledger, September 15, 1880
Weekly Commercial Herald, Sep 25, 1885
Clarion-Ledger, November 16, 1887
Yazoo Herald, June 6, 1890