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Norris Wright Cuney, a Tribune of the Black People
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270 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1995
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September 1, 2019
Norris Wright Cuney emerged from slavery to lead the Republican Party—mostly through influence—first in Galveston and then statewide from about 1869 nearly to his death in 1898. His father—Colonel Philip Cuney, the slaveowner who held his mother and him—sent him and his brothers to school in Pittsburgh. The boys would have been sent to college in Oberlin but the war in 1861 cut them off from their parents and funds.
According to his contemporary James S. Clarkson in the introduction, he adhered “to the principles of Lincoln and the rule of the people; and… the ever-supreme duty of creating equal rights and equal chance in life for all men”.
He was a delegate to several Republican National Conventions, was elected alderman in Galveston, and presided over the Republican National Committee in DC in 1891 to choose the site of the 1892 National Convention. At a time when “innocent men were murdered for daring to be Republicans”.
Others were driven out on the threat of the murder of themselves and their families.
This was in the early part of his career, and he couldn’t count on protection from law enforcement.
This biography was written by Cuney’s daughter in 1913, fifteen years after her father’s death. It’s a fascinating story about a man who rose to prominence during the too-brief period after the Civil War when Democrats did not rule the South—but they tried from the start.
Much of his influence was required keeping southern Democrats from splintering the early Republican Party and turning it into a “Lily White” organization so as to cut off newly-freed slaves from political power—even to the point of holding their own conventions when they failed at the official Republican conventions, and representing themselves as Republicans nationally.
But he also kept his sense of humor, or at least irony, as when he describes the Democrats as hated Republicans more than they loved any principles:
The introduction by Tera Hunter is an odd one; this is a book by the daughter of the subject, so it’s expected that it is heavily nostalgic and that she idolizes him. Hunter criticizes her for that; but Hunter also whitewashes what the author does write about her father. Hunter, for example, criticizes what she calls Cuney’s “conciliatory attitude toward the white businessmen” of Galveston during various strikes.
What actually happened is that Cuney talked strikers down from destroying the industrial capacity of Galveston that he was working to make them a part of; they were threatening to destroy the railroads and trains, and he convinced them not too. Further, he later opposed Labor’s attempt at locking out black workers on the docks and secured jobs for blacks as longshoremen and screwmen. To do this he had to create his own organization, because the labor unions claimed that allowing “Negroes to be used as screwmen and longshoremen… deprived white men of bread and meat.”
Hunter leaves all of that out, and then chastises Maud Cuney-Hare for having “blurred the line between her roles as a detached reporter and an adoring daughter”.
There are interesting references to other people of the era and earlier. For example, Maud Cuney-Hare refers to James Bowie as “one of the martyrs of the Alamo”, in passing, as the Cuney’s had been allied with the Bowies in Louisiana before moving to Texas.
And there’s a strange reference, that the author reprints from a newspaper that is, generally, approving of her father, that, in canvassing for a vote in the 1888 Texas state Republican convention, “He trod the boards like a Booth.” The Booth family was a very famous family of actors in the era but by 1888 there most famous member just have been John Wilkes Booth.
If there is a theme running through the book, it is the author’s emphasis on her father’s sense of responsibility. He felt it both about his family, as when he told his sons to “Do as you please, but please to do right.” And about the citizens, as when he describes Galveston as like a business, and the voters the stockholders, with all the responsibilities of stockholders to vote for good government.
He was patriotic both toward America and Texas. He sent an American flag to a school that was named after him, along with the note:
And he wrote to Texas Democrats trying to pass what we would now call Jim Crow laws, mandating separate cars for blacks and whites on railroads, that if there was any demand for such laws, the railroads would already be doing it, and…
This is an amazing story of life following the Reconstruction era, and well worth reading. It is not a dry historical text. It is a memoir by a daughter who loved her father, and who wanted him to be remembered. And he ought to be.
According to his contemporary James S. Clarkson in the introduction, he adhered “to the principles of Lincoln and the rule of the people; and… the ever-supreme duty of creating equal rights and equal chance in life for all men”.
He was a delegate to several Republican National Conventions, was elected alderman in Galveston, and presided over the Republican National Committee in DC in 1891 to choose the site of the 1892 National Convention. At a time when “innocent men were murdered for daring to be Republicans”.
Others were driven out on the threat of the murder of themselves and their families.
We propose to make a test case of his suit, as to whether a man can be driven from his home and his property, by the oligarchy which not only now rules the South, but proposes to rule the country—because he dares to differ with it on political questions.
This was in the early part of his career, and he couldn’t count on protection from law enforcement.
Friends, a dozen or more, well armed gathered quietly at dark in the living room and dining-room, prepared to stay with father throughout the night and give him their protection.
This biography was written by Cuney’s daughter in 1913, fifteen years after her father’s death. It’s a fascinating story about a man who rose to prominence during the too-brief period after the Civil War when Democrats did not rule the South—but they tried from the start.
The Ku Klux Klan and the Democrats opposed every policy of reconstruction and were determined by force and intimidation to keep the Negro from the polls.
Much of his influence was required keeping southern Democrats from splintering the early Republican Party and turning it into a “Lily White” organization so as to cut off newly-freed slaves from political power—even to the point of holding their own conventions when they failed at the official Republican conventions, and representing themselves as Republicans nationally.
But he also kept his sense of humor, or at least irony, as when he describes the Democrats as hated Republicans more than they loved any principles:
They [Democrats] would become out-and-out prohibitionists, were it not for fear that such action might in some way aid the Republican party. This in their minds is a greater evil than whiskey.
The introduction by Tera Hunter is an odd one; this is a book by the daughter of the subject, so it’s expected that it is heavily nostalgic and that she idolizes him. Hunter criticizes her for that; but Hunter also whitewashes what the author does write about her father. Hunter, for example, criticizes what she calls Cuney’s “conciliatory attitude toward the white businessmen” of Galveston during various strikes.
What actually happened is that Cuney talked strikers down from destroying the industrial capacity of Galveston that he was working to make them a part of; they were threatening to destroy the railroads and trains, and he convinced them not too. Further, he later opposed Labor’s attempt at locking out black workers on the docks and secured jobs for blacks as longshoremen and screwmen. To do this he had to create his own organization, because the labor unions claimed that allowing “Negroes to be used as screwmen and longshoremen… deprived white men of bread and meat.”
Hunter leaves all of that out, and then chastises Maud Cuney-Hare for having “blurred the line between her roles as a detached reporter and an adoring daughter”.
There are interesting references to other people of the era and earlier. For example, Maud Cuney-Hare refers to James Bowie as “one of the martyrs of the Alamo”, in passing, as the Cuney’s had been allied with the Bowies in Louisiana before moving to Texas.
And there’s a strange reference, that the author reprints from a newspaper that is, generally, approving of her father, that, in canvassing for a vote in the 1888 Texas state Republican convention, “He trod the boards like a Booth.” The Booth family was a very famous family of actors in the era but by 1888 there most famous member just have been John Wilkes Booth.
If there is a theme running through the book, it is the author’s emphasis on her father’s sense of responsibility. He felt it both about his family, as when he told his sons to “Do as you please, but please to do right.” And about the citizens, as when he describes Galveston as like a business, and the voters the stockholders, with all the responsibilities of stockholders to vote for good government.
He was patriotic both toward America and Texas. He sent an American flag to a school that was named after him, along with the note:
I send herewith a flag, the emblem of our country. May you impress upon their minds, young as they are, the significance of this emblem to themselves and their posterity—teach them to cherish it, to love it and if necessary to die for it.
And he wrote to Texas Democrats trying to pass what we would now call Jim Crow laws, mandating separate cars for blacks and whites on railroads, that if there was any demand for such laws, the railroads would already be doing it, and…
I can assure you that it would be far more desirable to be wronged by a Railroad Corporation than by the State, which I ought to and want to love.
This is an amazing story of life following the Reconstruction era, and well worth reading. It is not a dry historical text. It is a memoir by a daughter who loved her father, and who wanted him to be remembered. And he ought to be.
I objected to Mr. Nugent because he is in line with Mr. Hogg; but a few steps removed toward socialism and communism—for instance, the Government ownership of railroads and the sub-treasury. His principles seek to undermine our whole system of business, which has existed for years, and under which our country has become great and strong, and made itself the foremost among the nations of the world.
Displaying 1 of 1 review