Robert Poindexter

Robert Poindexter was a state legislator who served in the Louisiana House of Representatives and Louisiana State Senate during the Reconstruction era.

Biography Birth records disagree on his birthplace as being either New York state or Tennessee and he may have been enslaved until 1860.

Poindexter was elected to the Louisiana State Senate in June 1868 as a Republican representing Assumption, Lafourche and St. Landry Parish's. He served from 1868 until 1870 and then later was elected to serve in the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1874 but only served until 1875 due to the Wheeler Compromise.

While serving in his first legislative session he lived in New Orleans and shared a house with four fellow legislators (two black and two white), but he kept his official residence as Napoleonville, Louisiana.

He was a Republican until 1876 when he changed allegiances to the Democratic Party partly due to the Republicans failure on schools and teachers pay, but also because he disliked Wheeler for the loss of his seat.

While serving in the senate Poindexter introduced a number of bills relating to moral and family values such as the suppression of obscene publications and the outlawing of adultery and concubinage. He also introduced a bill on August 13, 1868 to provided children with free school transport which was adopted August 20, 1868.

The 1870 United States census lists him as running a ferry company, owing $500 of real estate and $5,000 in personal property.