Oscar Dunn: America's First Black Lieutenant Governor

America's First Black Lieutenant Governor

Oscar James Dunn was born in 1822 in New Orleans, Louisiana. His father James Dunn had been freed from slavery in 1819, and by 1832 had purchased the freedom of his wife Maria and young Oscar. In a city where the boundaries of race were already more complicated than anywhere else in America, Oscar Dunn navigated both the free Black community and the rigid caste system of antebellum New Orleans.

Before the Civil War, Dunn worked as a plasterer, a music teacher, and a boarding house operator. He also served as a captain in a Black regiment during the Civil War. After the war, during Reconstruction, Dunn became a Republican activist and a political force in a city that was being rebuilt from its foundations.

A Historic First

In 1868, Oscar Dunn was elected Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana — becoming the first African American to serve as lieutenant governor of any U.S. state. It was a groundbreaking moment, not just for Louisiana but for the entire country. Dunn championed universal suffrage, land ownership for freed people, taxpayer-funded education for Black children, and equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. He served on the New Orleans city council and as President pro tempore of the Louisiana State Senate.

In 1871, when Governor Henry Clay Warmoth was recovering from a foot injury, Dunn served as acting governor for thirty-nine days — making him the first Black person to serve as governor of a U.S. state, even in a temporary capacity.

A Mysterious Death

Oscar Dunn died suddenly on November 22, 1871, at forty-nine. Some suspected poisoning, though no evidence ever confirmed it. His funeral drew approximately fifty thousand people lining Canal Street — a massive outpouring that reflected how much he meant to the city's Black community and to the cause of Reconstruction. W.E.B. Du Bois later called him "an unselfish, incorruptible leader." Oscar Dunn was the future that Reconstruction promised and that white supremacy stole. New Orleans should remember his name.