By Garry Blanson
Former colored slave who is considered to have led Louisiana’s first civil rights campaign
Recently, I signed a petition to recall Governor Jeff Landry. When I got to the location where the signing was being held, they requested that I provide proof that I was an active voter in the State of Louisiana.
Wow! There you have it. Without being an active voter in Louisiana, you aren’t even allowed to sign the voter recall petition to recall Governor Jeff Landry!
Furthermore, over the past year or so, Roosevelt Wright Jr. and I have been stressing the importance of making sure that you are a registered Louisiana voter. Additionally, Mr. Wright actually went as far as to make a video that he posted on his Facebook page.
By the way, if your name stays on the inactive voter list for too long, your name can be be purged, and you will have to re-register to regain your voting privileges!
Well, now that I have gotten that off my chest, on to this week’s Black pioneer.
Henry Adams was born into slavery as Henry Houston in Newton County, Georgia, on March 16, 1843. Around 1850, Henry’s slaveowner moved his plantation to DeSoto Parish, Louisiana. Eventually, he was freed by his slaveowner on May 26, 1865, when Shreveport, Louisiana, surrendered to Union forces.
Some of the interesting things about Henry include the following: In 1865, he worked as a drayman in Shreveport, Louisiana, hauling goods for a White merchant. From 1866 to 1869, he served in the United States Army. In 1870, he organized a group of Colored veterans from Shreveport, calling the group “The Committee,” with about 150 men traveling across the South to encourage African Americans to vote.
In 1874, Henry’s organization became part of the Colonization Council, a secret fraternal society. Around 1878, Henry began encouraging and recruiting Colored people in Louisiana to join him in the Great Migration movement that was happening in the South.
Surprisingly, not much is known or recorded about Henry Adams after 1884, when his organization, the Colonization Council, gradually declined in membership.
