dr. magness. >> thank you. john willis menard is a familiar name for those who know a bit about history of african-american representation in the united states house of representatives. his main claim to fame is that he was the first african-american elected to the house of representatives. but he was denied his seat in 1869. we'll get into a bit of the reasons behind that. but i'm here to talk about some of his life, his background, his history up until this point, because he was actually a very accomplished individual, who sat at the crossroads of two major events in american history, and international history. they were related events, the american civil war had a front-row seat to this right here in washington, d.c. but also, shortly after the war, he migrated to jamaica, and was a participant in a major event internationally in 1865. both of these events had the connection of being tied to the end of slavery, and establishment of greater freedom, civil rights for the african population, both in the british

dr. magness. >> thank you. i'm here to talk about john willis menard. he is somewhat of a familiar name for some. his main claim to fame was that he was the first african-american elected to the house of representatives but was denied a seat in 1869. we'll get into a bit of the reasons behind that. i'm here to talk about his life, background and history up until this point because he was actually an accomplished individual who sat at the crossroads of two major events in american history and international surprise. the american civil war right here in washington d.c. but shortly after the war he my migrated to jamaica and was a participant in a major event internationally, the morant bay rebellion of 1865. both of these events were tied to the end of slavery and greater freedom and civil rights for the african population, both in the british so, he had a front-row seat to two intersecting events at a troubled time in u.s. history. we don't know too much about his early life other than he was born in illinois. in 1838. he came from a family that was beli