Ulysses L. Houston

{{short description|U.S politician during the Reconstruction Era}} {{Use American English|date=April 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2026}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = | honorific_suffix = | image = | image_upright = | image_size =  | alt = | caption = | state_house = Georgia | district = Bryan County | term_start = 1868 | term_end = 1868 <br>Original 33 | predecessor = | successor = | birth_date = | birth_place = Grahamville, South Carolina | death_date = | death_place = | monuments = | other_names = | citizenship = | education = | alma_mater = | occupation = | agent =  | known_for = | spouse = | children = | parents = | party = Republican | allegiance = | branch = | service_years = | rank = | unit = }} '''Ulysses L. Houston''' was a pastor and state legislator in Georgia.<ref name=free>Freedom's Lawmakers by Eric Foner Louisiana State University Press (1996) pages 109 and 110</ref> He was elected to the Georgia State Legislature in 1868,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Elmore|first1=Charles J.|title=Savannah Georgia|date=2002|publisher=Arcadia Pub.|location=Charleston, S.C.|isbn=073851408X|page=31}}</ref> and was an influential organizer in Savannah, Georgia's African-American community during the mid-19th century.<ref name=Harvey/>

He was born a slave in Grahamville, South Carolina, and was taken by his master Moses Henderson to Savannah, where he served as a house servant.<ref name=Harvey>{{cite book|last1=Harvey|first1=Paul|title=Redeeming the South religious cultures and racial identities among Southern Baptists, 1865-1925|date=1997|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|location=Chapel Hill|isbn=0807861952|page=56}}</ref> According to the book ''Redeeming the South religious cultures and racial identities among Southern Baptists'': "He learned to read from white sailors while he worked in the city's hospital and earned money by hiring out his time."<ref name=Harvey/> Licensed to preach in 1855, he was the pastor of the Third African Baptist Church (later renamed the First Bryan Baptist Church) in Savannah, Georgia, a congregation of about 400,<ref name=Harvey/> from 1861 to 1889.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.fbbcsav.org/timeline |title=FBBC Timeline |accessdate=October 1, 2018}}</ref> He was twice president of the black Baptist convention in Georgia.<ref name=Harvey/>

During the American Civil War, Houston was one of the 20 Black church leaders who met with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and Union General William Tecumseh Sherman on January 12, 1865. He was one of the 16 freedmen in this group.<ref name=min>{{cite web |url=http://www.freedmen.umd.edu/savmtg.htm |title=Minutes of an interview between the colored ministers and church officers at Savannah, Georgia with the Secretary of War and Major General Sherman |date=January 12, 1865}}</ref> This meeting (which would later be called the "Savannah Colloquy") took place at the Green–Meldrim House, and their discussion directly led to Sherman's Special Field Orders No. 15, which included the famous Forty acres and a mule land allotment.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lawton|first=Laura|title=Legendary Locals of Savannah|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|year=2015|isbn=9781467101981|pages=62}}</ref>

He was later one of the Original 33 African American legislators of the Reconstruction era in Georgia, expelled or forced to resign.

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Houston, Ulysses}} Category:African-American Baptist ministers Category:African-American activists Category:Original 33 Category:African-American politicians of the Reconstruction era Category:People from Jasper County, Georgia Category:African-American state legislators in Georgia (U.S. state) Category:People from Jasper County, South Carolina Category:19th-century members of the Georgia General Assembly Category:Year of death missing