John Willis Menard

John Willis Menard was a journalist and editor for several Republican newspapers, including The Radical Standard (LA), Florida News and The Southern Leader. He published a book of nonfiction, An Address to the Free Colored People of Illinois (1860), and a book of poems called Lays in Summer Lands (1879).

Born in Illinois to free parents of Louisiana Creole descent, he was educated at Muekingum University and Iberia College. Menard worked as a clerk in the Department of the Interior during the Civil War, and was sent to British Honduras (now Belize) in 1863 to investigate the site for a proposed colony for newly freed slaves. In 1868, he became the first African American elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, but he never served. Elected to fill the unexpired term of a Democrat who died in office (representing Louisiana’s second congressional district), Menard was challenged by Caleb S. Hunt, the white man who lost the election, and the House, after hearing arguments from each man, decided to seat neither man. In this process, Menard became the first African American to address the House chamber from the lectern.

Menard later served a term in the Florida House of Representatives and as a Florida Justice of the Peace. He returned to DC in 1889 to take a clerkship in the Census Office and edit the National American magazine, and remained here until his death. This is his final DC address.