Jefferson F. Long

Jefferson Franklin Long ( * March 3, 1836 in Knoxville, Crawford County, Georgia; † February 4, 1901 in Macon, Georgia ) was an American politician. Between 1870 and 1871 he represented the state of Georgia in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Jefferson Long was born in 1836 near Knoxville as a slave. In the years before the Civil War, he grew up in slavery. He has taught himself and became after the Civil War and the abolition of slavery member of the Republican Party. Professionally, he worked as a tailor in Macon.

After the 1868 elected Congressman Samuel F. Gove had been denied the seat in Congress, Long was the fourth electoral district of Georgia in the due -election as his successor in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he took up his new mandate on 22 December 1870. He was one of the first African American who represented the state of Georgia in Congress. Since he resigned at the regular elections of the year 1870 for reelection, he could only finish the current term in Congress until March 3, 1871.

After his retirement from the U.S. House of Representatives Long worked back in his old job in Macon. In 1880 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Chicago, was nominated for the James A. Garfield as a presidential candidate. He died on 4 February 1901 in his hometown of Macon.