James Preston Poindexter

James Preston Poindexter (October 26, 1819 – February 7, 1907) was an abolitionist, civil rights activist, politician, and Baptist minister from Columbus, Ohio. He was born in Richmond, Virginia and moved to Ohio as a young man. In Ohio he was a part of abolitionist and Underground Railroad societies and became a Baptist preacher. From the pulpit, he preached against slavery and for African-American rights. After the American Civil War (1861–1865), he was involved in political activities in Columbus, serving on the City Council, the city Board of Education, the state Forestry Bureau, and as trustee of the Institute for the Blind and of Wilberforce University. At his death, he was noted as the second longest serving advocate for African American rights after Booker T. Washington.

Biography

Early life James Preston Poindexter was born in Richmond, Virginia October 26, 1819 to Evelina and Joseph Poindexter. His mother was black and Cherokee. Joseph was a white man and may have been a brother of George Poindexter, second governor of Mississippi. Joseph was a journalist at the Richmond Enquirer. His mother died when he was four years old. In the 1840s he married.

Early career

Poindexter was baptized at the Second Baptist Church in Columbus in the spring of 1840, was ordained in 1849, and became pastor of the Second Baptist Church in 1862,

Later career

After the Civil War, Poindexter was a leading advocate for education of black children. He was a delegate to the 1872 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia and was a delegate to state conventions many times.

Starting in 1880, In 1887 he was appointed to a six-year term as a member of the Board of Directors of the Ohio State Forestry Bureau He was appointed as a trustee for Wilberforce University in 1898 by governor Asa Bushnell. He served as the first black foreman of an Ohio grand Jury. He was a frequent contributor to numerous newspapers and journals He died in Columbus on February 7, 1907, of pneumonia and was survived by two grandchildren. The first public housing project built in Columbus, Poindexter Village, was named for him.