Robert B. Lindsay

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Robert Burns Lindsay (July 4, 1824 – February 13, 1902) was a Scots-American politician, elected as the 22nd Governor of the U.S. state of Alabama during Reconstruction, and serving one term from 1870 to 1872.[1]

Robert Burns Lindsay
22nd Governor of Alabama
In office
November 26, 1870 – November 17, 1872
LieutenantEdward H. Moren
Preceded byWilliam Hugh Smith
Succeeded byDavid P. Lewis
Personal details
Born(1824-07-04)July 4, 1824
Lochmaben, Dumfriesshire, Scotland
DiedFebruary 13, 1902(1902-02-13) (aged 77)
Tuscumbia, Alabama, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
SpouseSarah Miller Winston
Alma materUniversity of St Andrews
Signature

Early life

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Robert B. Lindsay was born in Lochmaben, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, on July 4, 1824. He studied at the University of St Andrews before emigrating to the United States in 1844.[2] He served in the Alabama House of Representatives in 1853 and the Alabama Senate in 1857, 1865, and 1870.[3]

1870 political campaign

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A Democrat, Lindsay was elected governor in 1870, following a year of white terrorism against black people: violence, including murders, and intimidation of black and white Republicans and freedmen supporters. For example, five Republicans, four black and one white, were lynched in Calhoun County; three black people (two who were Republican politicians) were murdered in Greene County, in March and October; the white Republican County Solicitor was murdered there in March; and on October 25, a Republican rally of 2,000 black people was disrupted by a mob of whites, who killed four black people and wounded 54 in the Eutaw riot.[4] Black people were intimidated and stayed home from the polls, with Democratic white voters in Greene County and elsewhere taking the state for Lindsay.[5]

He died in Tuscumbia, Alabama on February 13, 1902.[2]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Alabama : Past Governors Bios". National Governors Association. Archived from the original on May 4, 2020. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
  2. ^ a b Johnson, Rossiter; Brown, John Howard, eds. (1904). The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans. Vol. VI. Boston: The Biographical Society. Retrieved May 5, 2022 – via Internet Archive.
  3. ^ "Robert Burns Lindsay". National Governors Association. September 7, 2018.
  4. ^ Waldrep, Christopher (2011). Jury Discrimination: The Supreme Court, Public Opinion, and a Grassroots Fight for Racial Equality in Mississippi. U of Georgia P. pp. 137–38. ISBN 9780820341941.
  5. ^ Encyclopedia of Alabama
Party political offices
Vacant
Title last held by
Michael J. Bulger
Democratic nominee for Governor of Alabama
1870
Vacant
Title next held by
George S. Houston
Political offices
Preceded by Governor of Alabama
1870–1872
Succeeded by