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96 [ 5 ] “We Are Here as Citizens”: Reelection, the Civil Rights Bill, and Another Colored Convention The differences over strategy and the limited number of electoral opportunities available divided Chicago’s African American leaders. The small African American community could not afford division if it hoped to make gains in the political world. While patronage was increasing, gains were also measured in the holding of public office. Having African Americans nominated and elected with white votes served as an important symbol to the community. Achieving this was more difficult when the community was divided and unable to unite behind one candidate. Thomas saw this firsthand in the spring of 1884 when divisions in the African American contingent at the state Republican convention cost him being selected as a national delegate. The Election of 1884 There were other examples as well. In the spring of 1883, John Howard and an African American named Brown (probably George) ran for the Republican nomination for Second Ward Alderman but lost to the one white candidate in a low turnout primary election. Charles H. Lithgow, the white candidate, received 113 votes, while Brown received 72 and Howard 62. It is unknown if the vote was along racial lines, but combined the two African American candidates outpolled the one white candidate. Similarly that spring, two African Americans sought the Republican nomination for South Town Clerk, with the result that the one white candidate won the nomination at the town convention, although Joseph Houser, one of the losing candidates, disputed the result. The following year, one African American, H. J. Mitchell , ran for the clerk’s nomination against two white candidates, incumbent D. C. McKinnon and future Speaker of the Illinois House David Shanahan. With the African American community not split, Mitchell was able to win “WE ArE hErE AS CITIzENS” 97 narrowly on the fourth ballot, although William Baker, who had nominated him, promoted the light-skinned Mitchell to the convention by exclaiming, “he is almost a white man.” Mitchell, however, would lose the 1884 election to Democrat Henry Malzacher.1 Thomas did not play a large role during the off-year elections following his 1882 victory, limited by his service in the legislature and his family problems. He did serve as a delegate to the county Republican convention in the fall of 1883, but that election only entailed nominating candidates for a superior court judge position and five county commissioner seats, none of which were located on the South Side.2 In the spring of 1884, despite differences over the Pittsburgh convention, Chicago’s African Americans were united behind Senator John Logan’s efforts to seek the Republican nomination for president. The Second Ward organized a Logan club with Thomas serving as secretary and Isaac Rivers as one of the vice presidents. On April 3, Ferdinand Barnett chaired an African American Logan Club meeting that was addressed by Thomas, Edward H. Morris, William Baker, and Robert Mitchell . Other African American Logan supporters included John Howard, W. C. Phillips, R. C. Waring, J. Q. Grant, and John G. Jones.3 Logan received the Republican vice presidential nomination that year, with James Blaine of Maine serving as the Republican standard-bearer. New York governor Grover Cleveland was the Democratic candidate for president, and Benjamin Butler, a former union general from Massachusetts, ran as an independent/Greenback Party candidate. With Blaine’s nomination, African American unity fell apart. Lloyd G. Wheeler supported Butler for president and Democrat Carter Harrison for governor. Reverend Smith of Bloomington stated he couldn’t support Blaine and by June was working for Butler. However, by the fall Smith had joined the Cleveland camp.4 But the real split in the community could be seen in the race for state representative in the Third Legislative District. There, Thomas ran for renomination against Robert M. Mitchell, William Baker, and John Howard, the three African Americans who had run against him in 1882. Mitchell had been a strong supporter of the Jones-Wheeler-Smith faction at the 1883 Illinois Colored Convention. While Howard had sided with Thomas in opposing the Pittsburgh Colored Convention, he had become a chronic office-seeker and had been campaigning for state representative all year. Baker was a longtime community activist who had served as a doorman for the state legislature in Springfield and run for the legislature in the old First District of Chicago in 1880 and in the Third District in 1882. H. J. Mitchell, Lloyd G. Wheeler, and Isaac...

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