I was reading about Hayes/Tilden and got depressed (thanks @nedfoley!!) so decided to write a quick thread about Josiah Walls, whose fascinating story I am writing about in my book. Who was Josiah Walls? A real renaissance man, in fact (1/x).

He was born in slavery and forced to fight for the Confederacy during the Civil War. (Reminder to self to get @kevinlevin’s book on black confederates). Once captured by the Union, he voluntarily joined an all black regimen. (2/x).

After the war, he settled in Florida where he went on to be a state senator, a delegate to the 1868 state constitutional convention, and importantly, the first black congressman from the state. Why is Walls featured in my book about congressional power? (3/x)

Well, he won an at-large seat in 1870 and his election was contested by his white Democratic opponent. The interesting fact is that Walls, a Republican, lost his election challenge in the Republican House. That fact absolutely stumped me...until I checked the dates (4/x).

The House resolved the election challenge on January 29, 1873, which meant that his opponent served out the rest of the term...which ended on March 4, 1873. I wasn’t ready for that level of petty, to be honest, but I’m here for it. (5/x)

To make this story even sweeter, in 1872, Walls won the seat in the newly redrawn 2nd cong district, which meant that as his opponent headed home after a breezy 5 week stint in Congress, Walls was starting his second term. But unfortunately, petty is a universal trait. (6/x)

Walls was subject to a second election contest after he won reelection in 1874, a contest that he lost because Democrats swept the House that year. After Congress, Walls became a professor at the State Normal College for Colored Students, now known as FAMU. (7/x)

Walls died in 1905, but unfortunately, he was buried in an unmarked grave and his story had been largely unknown (despite the fact that he was a bad ass). Hopefully, my book can help with some of that. (Fini!)