Pinchback

Bismarck R. Pinchback, namesake of Otto Edward Leopold, Empire-forger, died last week. He had the distinction of being the son of the only Negro who ever acted as Governor of Louisiana. His father, Pinckney Benton Stewart, as President of the State Senate and Lieutenant Governor, ruled Louisiana for two months (December 1872 through January 1873) during the impeachment trial of Governor Henry Clay Warmoth. It was at the time of the carpet-bagger-scalawag regime, when President Grant was maintaining a Republican state government in power by force of arms. Histories call Pinchback a good man or a scoundrel, depending on which side of the Mason-Dixon line they were written. Two years ago the elder Pinchback died and was buried in Metairie Cemetery--the only colored man in the precincts. Southern whites protested, but the former Governor had bought his burial plot 20 years earlier. It was not reported whether Bismarck will be buried with his father.