Charlton H. Tandy was born to free black parents on December 16, 1836, in Lexington, Kentucky. Tandy Moved to St. Louis in 1857 and worked as a porter, coachman and waiter until the Civil War. He enlisted in Company B of the 13th regiment of the Missouri State Militia and at the end of the war, was honorably discharged as a captain In 1870 he was appointed a messenger in the U.S. Customs House, the first of eleven commissioned positions in federal, state and municipal government.
Tandy was a persistent fighter for black civil rights and active in Republican politics. He helped establish Lincoln Institute (Lincoln University) in 1870, the first school of higher education for blacks in Missouri. He successufully worked to get black educators into the St. Louis public school system. In 1870 he organized a boycott against the segregated St. Louis streetcar lines and , after time in jail and litigation, integrated the streetcars. During the "Colored Exodus" from the South in 1879, he assisted 2, 000 refugees who were stranded in St. Louis. Appearing before a U.S. Congressional committee he urged Congress to provide aid for these refugees and to investigate and stop the violation of Negro rights in the South. He was known as a great orator and spoke on behalf of many white politicians. A loyal Republican he did not hesitate to criticize the party for neglecting the needs of Negroes. Tandy organized Negro political clubs to encourage Negroes to vote, run for office and become involved in political parties. He predicted the decline of Republicans in St. Louis politics if they continued to ignore Negroes. His predictions came true. Hed died in September, 1919.
FOLDER LIST
1. Biographical material,
2. Newsclippings about Tandy, 1877-1978
3. Politics, 1879-1888
4. Colored Exodus, 1879
5. Lawsuit, 1902
6. Tandy Park, 1938, 1967
7. Photographs, 135.1-135.2
INDEX
African Americans
MIgration
Politics
Tandy, Charlton H.
WESTERN HISTORICAL MANUSCRIPT COLLECTION
222 THOMAS JEFFERSON LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-ST. LOUIS
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