June 1868

During Reconstruction, over 600 Black men served in Southern state legislatures. South Carolina's lower house had a Black majority 1868–1876. Black legislators established the South's first public school systems, enacted homestead exemptions protecting poor families' homes from creditors, reformed tax systems, and built hospitals and asylums. These achievements were systematically dismantled after Redemption.

Oscar James Dunn, a formerly enslaved man from New Orleans, was elected Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana in 1868 — the first Black man elected to statewide executive office in U.S. history. A self-taught plasterer who had purchased his freedom, Dunn served with distinction and resisted corruption scandals, earning wide respect before his sudden death in 1871.