28 Facts About Oscar Dunn

Oscar James Dunn served as Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana during the era of Reconstruction and was the first African American to act as lieutenant governor of a US state.

Oscar Dunn was the first African-American to serve as acting governor of a US state.

In 1868, Dunn was elected lieutenant governor of Louisiana, thus becoming the first African-American lieutenant governor of a US state.

Oscar Dunn ran on the ticket headed by Henry Clay Warmoth, formerly of Illinois.

James Oscar Dunn was born into slavery in Petersburg, Virginia and had been transported to the Deep South during the forced migration of more than one million African Americans from the Upper South.

Oscar Dunn was bought by James H Caldwell of New Orleans, who founded the St Charles Theatre and New Orleans Gas Light Company.

Oscar Dunn worked for Caldwell as a skilled carpenter for decades, including after his emancipation by Caldwell in 1819.

James Oscar Dunn continued to work as a carpenter for his former master Caldwell.

However, Oscar Dunn must have returned to work because he progressed in the world.

Oscar Dunn was an English-speaking free black in a city in which the racial caste system was the underpinning of daily life.

In December 1866, Oscar Dunn married Ellen Boyd Marchand, a widow born free in Ohio.

Oscar Dunn was the daughter of Henry Boyd and his wife, who were from Ohio.

Oscar Dunn adopted her three children, Fannie, Charles and Emma.

Oscar Dunn worked to achieve equality for the millions of blacks freed by passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, ratified after the American Civil War.

Oscar Dunn actively promoted and supported the Universal Suffrage Movement, advocated land ownership for all blacks, taxpayer-funded education of all black children, and equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment.

Oscar Dunn joined the Republican Party, many of whose members supported suffrage for blacks.

Oscar Dunn opened an employment agency that assisted in finding jobs for the freedmen.

Oscar Dunn was appointed as Secretary of the Advisory Committee of the Freedmen's Savings and Trust Company of New Orleans, established by the Freedmen's Bureau.

Oscar Dunn was the President pro tempore of the Louisiana State Senate.

Oscar Dunn was a member of the Printing Committee of the legislature, which controlled a million-dollar budget.

Oscar Dunn served as President of the Metropolitan Police, which had an annual budget of nearly one million dollars.

In 1870, Oscar Dunn served on the board of trustees and Examining Committee for Straight University, a historically black college founded in the city.

Oscar Dunn assumed the office of acting governor of Louisiana for a total of 39 days during the period between May 5,1871, and July 18,1871, after Warmoth sustained an injury to his foot that required two extended absences from the state, thus making Oscar Dunn the first African-American governor in the history of the United States.

On November 22,1871, Oscar Dunn died at home, at age 49, after a brief and sudden illness.

Oscar Dunn had been campaigning for the upcoming state and presidential elections.

Only four out of the seven doctors who examined Oscar Dunn signed off on the official cause of death, suspecting murder.

The Oscar Dunn funeral was reported as one of the largest in New Orleans.

Oscar Dunn was interred in the Cassanave family mausoleum at St Louis Cemetery No 2.