{{short description|American politician (died 1884)}} {{Use American English|date=November 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder |name=A. K. Davis |image=Alexander Kelso Davis.png |alt= |caption=Official portrait, 1874 |office1= 8th Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi |term_start1=January 22, 1874 |term_end1=March 16, 1876 |governor1=Adelbert Ames |predecessor1=Joseph Bennett (acting) |successor1=John M. Stone |state_house2=Mississippi |constituency2={{nowrap|from Noxubee County}} |term_start2=1870 |term_end2=1874 |alongside2={{right|Marshall McNeese (1870{{nbnd}}1872)<br>Isham Stewart (1870{{nbnd}}1874)<br>J. W. Chandler (1872{{nbnd}}1874)}} |preceded2=J. J. Beauchamp |succeeded2=Thomas A. Cotton |birth_name=Alexander Kelso Davis |birth_date= |birth_place= |death_date={{death date|1884|11|20}} |death_place=Canton, Mississippi, U.S. |party= Republican |occupation={{hlist|Lawyer|politician|pastor}} |spouse= }} '''Alexander Kelso Davis''' (died November 20, 1884) was an American politician. He was a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives and Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi.<ref name=kelso>{{Cite web|url=http://much-ado.net/legislators/legislators/alexander-k-davis/|title=Alexander Kelso Davis – Against All Odds}}</ref> He was impeached and removed by the resurgent Democrats towards the end of the Reconstruction era in 1876. He was the first African American to serve as lieutenant governor in Mississippi.<ref name=kelso/>
He was a lawyer from Tennessee.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/alexander-k-davis/|title=Davis, Alexander K.|website=Mississippi Encyclopedia}}</ref> He came to Mississippi in 1869 and lived in Noxubee County. He served in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1870 until 1873. He served as Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi from 1872 , succeeding Ridgley C. Powers, and served until he resigned as he faced impeachment in 1876. Resurgent Democrats took back control and impeached him to prevent him becoming governor once they removed Governor Adelbert Ames.<ref name=freedom>Freedom's Lawmakers by Eric Foner pages xliv and 57 Louisiana State University Press 1996</ref> The official allegation of his impeachment had been accepting a bribe to pardon a convicted murderer.<ref name="ORL1">{{cite web |title=Impeachment of State Officials |url=https://www.cga.ct.gov/2004/rpt/2004-r-0184.htm |website=www.cga.ct.gov |publisher=ORL Research |access-date=28 December 2022 |date=February 9, 2004}}</ref> He left politics and became a pastor where he served until his death in 1884.<ref name=kelso/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/alexander-k-davis-1884/|title = Alexander K. Davis (?- 1884) •|date = 7 September 2020}}</ref>
==See also== * African American officeholders from the end of the Civil War until before 1900 * List of lieutenant governors of Mississippi * List of minority governors and lieutenant governors in the United States
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Navboxes top |title = Offices and distinctions }} {{s-start}} {{s-par|us-ms-hs}} {{s-bef|before=J. J. Beauchamp}} {{s-ttl|title=Member of the Mississippi House of Representatives from Noxubee County|years=1870–1874|with=Marshall McNeese{{nobold|, 1870{{nbnd}}1872}}|with2=Isham Stewart{{nobold|, 1870{{nbnd}}1874}}|with3=J. W. Chandler{{nobold|, 1872{{nbnd}}1874}}}} {{s-aft|after=Thomas A. Cotton}} {{s-par|us-ms-sen}} {{s-bef|before=Joseph Bennett|as=President Pro Tempore of the Mississippi State Senate}} {{s-ttl|title=President of the Mississippi State Senate|years=1874–1876}} {{s-aft|after=John M. Stone}} {{s-off}} |- {{s-vac|reason=following 1871 succession of incumbent to the governorship|last=Ridgley C. Powers}} {{s-ttl|title=Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi|years=1874–1876}} {{s-aft|after=John M. Stone}} {{s-end}} {{navboxes bottom}} {{Lieutenant Governors of Mississippi}} {{Authority control}}{{Portal bar|Biography|History|Law|Politics|American Civil War|Mississippi|United States}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Alexander}} Category:Year of birth missing Category:Tennessee lawyers Category:1884 deaths Category:Lieutenant governors of Mississippi Category:African-American state legislators in Mississippi Category:Republican Party members of the Mississippi House of Representatives Category:People from Noxubee County, Mississippi Category:19th-century American lawyers Category:Mississippi politicians convicted of crimes Category:Impeached state and territorial constitutional officers of the United States removed from office Category:19th-century members of the Mississippi Legislature Category:African-American politicians of the Reconstruction era