Ulysses L. Houston

Ulysses L. Houston was a pastor and state legislator in Georgia. He was elected to the Georgia State Legislature in 1868, and was an influential organizer in Savannah, Georgia's African-American community during the mid-19th century. According to the book Redeeming the South religious cultures and racial identities among Southern Baptists: "He learned to read from white sailors while he worked in the city's hospital and earned money by hiring out his time." He was twice president of the black Baptist convention in Georgia. This meeting (which would later be called the "Savannah Colloquy") took place at the Green–Meldrim House, and their discussion directly led to Sherman's Special Field Orders No. 15, which included the famous Forty acres and a mule land allotment.

He was later one of the Original 33 African American legislators of the Reconstruction era in Georgia, expelled or forced to resign.