PolitiFact: Is Sears Wrong On First Republican Convention Claim?
FILE PHOTO: Winsome Sears, Republican candidate for Lt. Governor, is the first Black woman to be nominated by either party for statewide office in Virginia. (Image: Winsome Sears Campaign Video)
Winsome Sears, the GOP nominee for lieutenant governor, says she wants to convince African-Americans to return “to our roots” in the Republican Party.
“The very first Republican convention after the Civil War was held in Virginia in a Black church,” she said during a May 13 interview on Fox News. There was a picture of Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president, on the bookcase behind her.
Morgan, Peter G (1817–1890) – Encyclopedia Virginia encyclopediavirginia.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from encyclopediavirginia.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Early Years
Seaton was born free early in the 1820s in Alexandria, a part of the District of Columbia until 1847. His parents were George Seaton and Lucinda Seaton, free blacks who, according to family tradition, had been enslaved at Mount Vernon. On July 30, 1841, Seaton registered as a free person of color along with his brothers and sisters in Alexandria, with the registry listing him as “about 19 years” old. He learned to read and write and also trained as a carpenter. On October 6, 1845, he took out a marriage bond and on that date or soon thereafter married Maria Louisa Bryant, a free woman of color. They had at least five sons and four daughters.
James Thomas Sammons Taylor was born on January 14, 1840, in Berryville. He was the son of Fairfax Taylor, an African American shoemaker who had purchased his freedom, and his first wife Ellen Sammons Taylor. By 1850 the family had moved to Charlottesville, where his father became a prominent leader in the black community. He reportedly hired a private tutor for his son and also taught him the cobbler’s trade. After the U.S. War Department established the Bureau of Colored Troops, James Taylor enlisted in the USCT’s 2nd Infantry Regiment on August 24, 1863, in Washington, D.C. Assigned to Company E, he was named acting commissary sergeant and was promoted to the post on November 10, 1863, with the rank to date from September 1.
A Re-Declaration of Independence - Third Installment beaufortcountynow.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from beaufortcountynow.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.