John R. Lynch was born in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, September 10, 1847, a slave; and he remained in slavery until emancipated by the results of the Rebellion, receiving no early education; a purchaser of his mother carried her with her children to Natchez, where, when the Union troops took possession, he attended evening school for a few months, and he has since by private study acquired a good English education; he engaged in the business of photography at Natchez until 1869, when Governor Ames appointed him a justice of the peace; he was elected a member of the State Legislature from Adams County, and re-elected in 1871, serving the last term as Speaker of the House; was elected a representative from Mississippi in the Forty-third Congress as a Republican, receiving 15,391 votes against 8,430 votes for H. Cassidy, Sr., Democrat; and was re-elected to the Forty-fourth Congress as a Republican (defeating Roderick Seals, Democrat), serving from December 1, 1873, to March 3, 1877.
Charles E. Nash was born at Opelousas, Louisiana; received a common-school education at New Orleans; was a bricklayer by trade; enlisted as private in the Eighty-third Regiment, United States Chasseurs d'Afrique, April 20, 1863, and was promoted until he became acting sergeant-major of the regiment; lost a leg at the storming of Fort Blakely, and was honorably discharged from the army May 30, 1865; was elected a representative from Louisiana in the Forty-fourth Congress as a Republican, receiving 13,156 votes against 12,085 votes for Joseph M. Moore, Democrat, serving from December 6, 1875, to March 3, 1877; was defeated as the Republican candidate for the Forty-fifth Congress, receiving 11,147 votes against 15,520 votes for Edward White Robertson, Democrat.
Joseph H. Rainey was born at Georgetown, South Carolina (where both of his parents were slaves, but, by their industry, obtained their freedom), June 21, 1832; although debarred by law from attending school he acquired a good education, and further improved his mind by observation and travel; his father was a barber, and he followed that occupation at Charlestown till 1862, when, having been forced to work on the fortifications of the Confederates, he escaped to the West Indies, where he remained until the close of the war, when he returned to his native town; he was elected a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention of 1868, and was a member of the State Senate of South Carolina in 1870, resigning when elected a representative from South Carolina in the Forty-first Congress as a Republican (to fill the vacancy caused by the non-reception of B. F. Whittemore), by a majority of 17,193 votes over Dudley, Conservative; was re-elected to the Forty-second Congress, receiving 20,221 votes against 11,628 votes for C. W. Dudley, Democrat; was re-elected to the Forty-third Congress, receiving 19,765 votes, being all that were cast; was re-elected to the Forty-fourth Congress, receiving 14,370 votes against 13,563 votes for Samuel Lee, Republican; was re-elected to the Forty-fifth Congress, receiving 18,180 votes against 16,661 votes for J. S. Richardson, Democrat, serving from March 4, 1869.
Alonzo J. Ransier was born at Charlestown, South Carolina, in January, 1834; was self-educated; was employed as shipping-clerk in 1850 by a leading merchant, who was tried for violation of law in "hiring a Colored clerk," and fined one cent with costs; was one of the foremost in the works of reconstruction in 1865; was a member of a convention of the friends of equal rights in October, 1865, at Charlestown, and was deputed to present the memorial there framed to Congress; was elected a member of the State Constitutional Convention of 1868; was elected a member of the House of Representatives in the State Legislature in 1869; was chosen chairman of the State Republican Central Committee, which position he held until 1872; was elected a presidential elector on the Grant and Colfax ticket in 1868; was elected lieutenant-governor of South Carolina in 1870 by a large majority; was president of the Southern States Convention at Columbia in 1871; was chosen a delegate to, and was a vice-president of, the Philadelphia Convention which nominated Grant and Wilson in 1872; and was elected a representative from South Carolina in the Forty-third Congress as a Republican, receiving 20,061 votes against 6,549 votes for W. Gurney, Independent Republican, serving from December 1, 1873, to March 3, 1875.
James T. Rapier was born in Florence, Alabama, in 1840; was educated in Canada; is a planter; was appointed a notary public by the governor of Alabama in 1866; was a member of the first Republican Convention held in Alabama, and was one of the committee that framed the platform of the party; represented Lauderdale County in the Constitutional Convention held at Montgomery in 1867; was nominated for secretary of State in 1870, but defeated with the rest of the ticket; was appointed assessor of internal revenue for the second collection-district of Alabama in 1871; was appointed State commissioner to the Vienna Exposition in. 1873 by the governor of Alabama; was elected a representative from Alabama in the Forty-third Congress as a Republican, receiving 19,100 votes against 16,000 votes for C. W. Oates, Democrat, serving from December 1, 1873, to March 3, 1875; and was defeated as the Republican candidate for the Forty-fourth Congress, receiving 19,124 votes against 20,180 votes for Jeremiah N. Williams, Democrat.