{"id":422,"date":"2018-07-11T17:07:08","date_gmt":"2018-07-11T22:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/much-ado.net\/legislators\/?page_id=422"},"modified":"2026-05-08T15:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T20:32:08","slug":"emanuel-handy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/much-ado.net\/legislators\/legislators\/emanuel-handy\/","title":{"rendered":"Emanuel Handy"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"Emanuel<\/a>
Photo provided by Bianca. Please do not use elsewhere.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Emanuel Handy (Copiah County)<\/h2>\n

State House:\u00a0<\/strong>1870-1873<\/p>\n

Born:<\/strong> c. 1834 in Mississippi
\nDied:\u00a0<\/strong>December 8, 1922 in Kansas<\/p>\n

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.” He was appointed and made bond as Constable of Copiah Beat 1 in 1869.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Handy’s great-granddaughter, D. Antoinette Handy<\/a>, was a musician and professor who supported Black musicians through the grant program at the National Endowment for the Arts.<\/p>\n

\"Grandsons\"<\/a>
Handy’s grandsons through Emanuel Handy, Jr. Photo provided by Bianca. Please do not use elsewhere.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Signature of Emanuel Handy, from an 1871 petition to Governor Alcorn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n