John R. Lynch (1847 - 1939)

John Roy Lynch (September 10, 1847 – November 2, 1939) was an American politician, attorney, writer and military officer, who was elected as the first African-American Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1873. He was among the first generation of African Americans elected to the U.S House of Representatives during Reconstruction, the period in United States history after the Civil War.