William Beverly Nash

William Beverly Nash (1822 - January 19, 1888) was a state senator in South Carolina during the Reconstruction Era.[1][2]

Pinback button featuring a campaign portrait of Senator William B. Nash c. 1868

As a slave, he was owned by politician W. C. Preston.[1] He worked as a barber, shined shoes, worked as a porter, and waited tables before the American Civil War.[3]

Nash taught himself to read and write. He helped write the South Carolina state constitution and at a meeting said, "We are not prepared for this [freedom]. But we can learn. Give a man tools and let him commence to use them and in time he will learn a trade. So, it is with voting. We may not understand at the start, but in time we shall learn to do our duty."[3]

He died in his home due to heart issues on the same day he voted for the guarantee of the canal bonds.[2] He is buried at Randolph Cemetery with eight other reconstruction era legislators.[4][5]

The Smithsonian has a pinback button featuring his visage.[6] He also appears in a composite image composed of albumen silver print photographs of 63 South Carolina Radical Republican legislators. The image is subtitled radical members of the South Carolina Legislature.[7] Benjamin R. Tillman later used the composite image as propaganda to disenfranchise African Americans.[8]

References
  1. "Nash, William Beverly". Oxford African American Studies Center. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195301731.001.0001/acref-9780195301731-e-35857.
  2. "Georgetown Enquirer Newspaper Archives, Jan 25, 1888, p. 3". NewspaperArchive.com. 25 January 1888. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
  3. "South Carolina Adventure". Gibbs Smith – via Google Books.
  4. Helsley, Alexia Jones (March 9, 2015). "Columbia, South Carolina: A History". Arcadia Publishing – via Google Books.
  5. National register of Historic Places - Randolph Cemetery. 12 Dec 1994. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
  6. "Pinback button featuring a campaign portrait of Senator William B. Nash". National Museum of African American History and Culture.
  7. "Radical Members of the South Carolina Legislature". nmaahc.si.edu.
  8. https://www.knowitall.org/photo/63-members-1868-reconstruction-legislature-history-sc-slide-collection
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