02/08/12: A link to the past – and the future

This op-ed appeared in The Virginian-Pilot on the date shown.

THE NAME jumped out at me: Richard G.L. Paige.

I was perusing bills submitted to the General Assembly this session when I ran across Senate Joint Resolution 13 and its companion, House Joint Resolution 65. The bills were introduced to recognize the black representatives to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1867-1868 and those blacks who served in the legislature during Reconstruction.

About two dozen black men were elected as delegates to the convention, which met from Dec. 3, 1867, to April 17, 1868. The election of the delegates had taken place on Oct. 22, 1867, marking the first time black men were allowed to vote. Virginia was a military district at the time, under the command of Gen. John M. Schofield.

The convention produced what became known as the Underwood Constitution, named for Judge John C. Underwood, who is said to have dominated the convention.

Opponents referred to it as the “Negro Constitution,” since it provided voting rights to all male citizens at least 21 years old. The constitution was ratified by voters in 1869 by an overwhelming vote: 210,585 in favor and 9,136 against. Later that year, the new General Assembly met and ratified the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, a requirement for readmission to the Union.

Reconstruction officially ended in Virginia on Jan. 28, 1870, when President Ulysses Grant signed the act passed by Congress. With the Compromise of 1877, Reconstruction officially ended everywhere. Over the next few years, legislatures across the South enacted black codes, aimed at preventing the very rights guaranteed by the Constitution they had agreed to uphold. The result in Virginia was that no blacks served in the legislature from 1890 until 1968.

But in that brief window between 1869 and 1890, some 75 black men were elected as delegates and senators to the General Assembly. Among them was Richard G.L. Paige.

Paige, who died in 1904, was born a slave in Norfolk in 1846. He represented the city of his birth in the House of Delegates from 1871 to 1875 and again from 1879 to 1882. According to several sources, he was the son of “a prominent white woman” and was sent to Bos-ton to train as a machinist, returning after the war.

Like most black political leaders at the time, Paige was better educated and wealthier than most blacks. He graduated from Howard University in 1879 and opened a law practice, where he represented clients of all races. He amassed extensive real estate holdings.

Paige was not just a benchwarmer in the legislature. He was described as “among the principal leaders of the House,” where few members could “outrank him in oratory or public debate.” He tried, in 1880, to persuade the legislature to adopt anti-lynching legislation. He failed.

But he and the others left a rich legacy for others to follow. Today there are 18 black members among the 140 legislators in the General Assembly.

Yes, the name jumped out at me from the list included in the resolution. Despite my efforts, I’ve found no link between the family of Richard G.L. Paige and mine. That’s OK; he has plenty of descendents living in Hampton Roads to carry on his name and his works.

And one day, I might just find that link.