P.B.S. Pinchback Becomes First Black Governor

Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback served as acting Governor of Louisiana from December 9, 1872 to January 13, 1873, after the impeachment of Governor Henry Warmoth. Born free in Georgia, son of a white planter and a formerly enslaved woman, Pinchback was the first person of African descent to serve as governor of a U.S. state. No Black governor would serve again until Douglas Wilder of Virginia in 1990.