Athens' Black Politician
While political organizing was successful, political office was a different matter. Athens attorney Andrew Jackson Davison had moved to Ohio after obtaining his freedom and sought both local and state level political office. In 1873, he made his first bid for Prosecuting Attorney, and while he ran as an Independent candidate, he declared “I have always been a Republican.”[1] Davison had connections with prominent white community members. One of Davison’s two Republican opponents, L. M. Jewett, withdrew from the race, leaving Davison to lose to Republican candidate Charles Townsend. It has been speculated that the Republican Party used Davison to secure a win for their preferred candidate by dividing the votes to ensure Jewett’s loss.[2] Whether or not this was the case, Davison lost the election despite being a well-known attorney. Read more about Davison's legal career here, and more about his wife Eliza Brown here.
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This was not the end of Davison’s political career. Some time in the years after his defeat in the 1873 county election, he changed his political party from Republican to Democrat; it is unclear when he made his switch, but given his involvement as vice-president of a local “Hayes Club” alongside local Republican politicians in 1876, it may have been between then and his campaigning in 1878.[3] According to the Messenger, the Democrats “jealously and conspicuously upheld” Davison’s rights as he campaigned around Athens County in 1878.[4] The Republican Party’s treatment of Davison and other Black citizens led to Davison’s party switch. In a speech he delivered to a Columbus crowd in 1879, he denounced Republicans’ enfranchisement of Black voters as self-serving:
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Andrew Jackson Davison's 1873 campaign announcement, Athens Messenger, September 11, 1873.
Why did the Republican party enfranchise the negro, and for what purpose? It was for political capital; it was for political gain; it was for power; it was for the purpose of having the negro vote as it wanted him all the time; it was because they expected to use him as a tool on the day of election; it was because they thought they would control the colored vote whenever they pleased. When they enfranchised the negro they intended to use him as a tool and nothing else; as a political tool to vote them into office and high positions […] On the day of election the Republicans will wine with the negro, and dine with the negro, and do anything in God’s world to get his vote. After the election they will turn the cold shoulder to him – they will have no further use for him.[5]
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Thomas Nast, "It is Only a Truce to Regain Power (Playing Possum)," Harper's Weekly, August 24, 1872. Princeton University Library.
Davison was not alone in his rejection of the Republican Party. Many Black voters in the South, disillusioned with Republicans and hopeful that working with conservative white politicians would allow him to forge better race relations within his community.[6]
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This switch made Davison the cause of much criticism; many of his critics believed that Black Americans owed their freedom to the Republican Party and its sacrifices, while the Democratic Party had been the continued supporters of slavery and ill treatment.[7] Because of this, Davison’s switch was viewed as a betrayal, and reports on his involvement with the Democrats often mocked or insulted him. An 1879 article titled “A Slave’s Gratitude” read “I was dead; the Republican Party touched me and I lived. I was in bonds, and it made me free. I was a thing, and it created me a man. If I ever forget it, just let God take me hence, for I shall no more be fit to live. Will our Democratic friend Davidson cut this out and paste it in his hat?”[8] This jab had a clear message: as a former slave, Davison was expected to remember where he came from, who saved him, and how he should repay his freedom.
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Athens Messenger articles criticizing Davison's support of the Democratic Party. Above: December 25, 1879. Below: May 13, 1880.
This was not the last article Davison was told to paste into his hat. When a senator refused to read the name of Black man appointed for a state board in 1880, he refused to read the man’s name, “like a white man, like a Democrat, like a gentleman.”[9] Davison was told to stick this article in his hat to glance at before he made another speech for the Democrats. Davison’s critics continued to see the Democrats as a party who would never support Davison or any other Black candidate. These reports ignored that when Davison was a Republican candidate in the 1873 election, he was not supported as a candidate.
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Following his service to the Democratic Party, in 1883 Davison was ready to seek office again, this time as a clerk for State Senate. A statewide office was a step up for Davison, but it would be an uphill battle: he competed against many white men who hoped for the same position, and if the Democratic senator’s actions a few years earlier were any indication, the party was unlikely to advocate for a Black candidate.[10] Despite his years of hard work and service, Davison was passed over. He was given a patronage job as a porter in the statehouse, a position that was well below his qualifications.
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Reporters were eager to ridicule Davison for this degrading new job. To some, this meant mocking his skill as a political leader and his ambition. The Jackson Standard wrote “Andrew Jackson is a great statesman. That’s the reason he’s a porter.”[11] Along with that, the charges of betrayal continued. “So this colored political Judas has at last got his thirty pieces for his mercenary treachery,” wrote the Messenger in response to the appointment.[12] The newspapers seemed to celebrate when Davison was mistreated by those he had placed his hopes with; however, Davison took the job. Despite being rejected multiple times by both Democrats and Republicans, he would run for office in Athens County several more times in his lifetime, still dedicated to challenging the limits set by white politicians and voters. He remained a member of the Democratic Party despite the pressure put on Black voters to be Republican, and despite many of the major political leaders in the county being Republicans.
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Andrew Jackson Davison’s political career indicates that while white politicians were happy to have Black men give speeches, politicians and white voters were unwilling to embrace Black candidates. The state senator’s unwillingness to announce a Black office-holder, as well as the Democratic Party’s choice to give Andrew Jackson Davison a servile job he was over-qualified for, show white politicians’ willingness to dismiss and humiliate Black peers when they achieved any level of political success. Davison’s Republican critics revealed that while Republicans did not always act in a way that helped Black Americans, their role in the Civil War and Emancipation led them to feel that Black voters owed them loyalty. The shifts in political affiliation by Templeton and later by Davison are examples of how, despite external pressure, Black Americans had agency to explore their options and act in whatever way seemed most likely to improve their lives.
Andrew Jackson Davison's grave, West State Street Cemetery.
Notes
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1. A. J. Davison, “Announcement: Prosecuting Attorney”, Athens Messenger, September 18, 1873.
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2. Demetra Zaros, Emma Ulbrich and Shelby Davenport, “The life of Andrew Jackson Davison – Part Three,” Athens News, February 12, 2020. Accessed January 19, 2020. https://www.athensnews.com/news/local/the-life-of-andrew-jackson-davison-part-three/article_27f7241c-4dcb-11ea-8540-3fe51f6fd3bf.html
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3. “Hayes Club Organization,” Athens Messenger, June 22, 1876.
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4. “Local Matters,” Athens Messenger, August 1, 1878.
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5. “A Colored Man Speaks,” The Democratic Press (Ravenna, OH), September 25, 1879. Library of Congress. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83035083/1879-09-25/ed-1/seq-2/.
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6. Stephen Robinson, “’To think, act, vote, and speak for ourselves’: Black Democrats and Black ‘Agency’ in the American South after Reconstruction,” Journal of Social History 48, no. 2 (Winter 2014) 367. https://www-jstor-org/stable/43306018?seq=5#metadata_info_tab_contents.
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7. “The Colored Meeting Monday Night,” Athens Messenger, October 4, 1877.
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8. “A Slave’s Gratitude,” Athens Messenger, December 25, 1879.
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9. “Local Matters,” Athens Messenger, May 13, 1880.
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10. “Local Matters,” Athens Messenger, October 18,1883.
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11. Jackson Standard (Jackson Co., OH), February 9, 1885. LoC. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85038180/1885-02-19/ed-1/seq-3/
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12. “Local Matters,” Athens Messenger, January 10, 1884.
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Image 1: A. J. Davison, “Announcement: Prosecuting Attorney”, Athens Messenger, September 11, 1873.
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Image 2: Thomas Nast, “It is only a truce to regain power (‘playing possum’),” Harper’s Weekly, August 24, 1872. GA 2008.01457. Thomas Nast Collection, Princeton University Library. http://pudl.princeton.edu/objects/x633f1189
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Image 3: “A Slave’s Gratitude,” Athens Messenger, December 25, 1879.
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Image 4: “Local Matters,” Athens Messenger, October 18,1883.
