On June 13, 1866 the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granting citizenship to African Americans was passed by Congress. Two years later, on the same day, Oscar James Dunn was elected Lieutenant-Governor of Louisiana. Dunn, a Radical Republican was the highest elected African American at the time and was instrumental in establishing public education in Louisiana. He actively supported universal suffrage, fought for jobs for newly freed slaves and established the People’s Bakery, owned by the Louisiana Association of Workingmen. Over 50,000 people attended his funeral in New Orleans.
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