Milton Coates Explained

Milton Coates was a cotton weigher who served as a state legislator and post office clerk in Mississippi. He represented Warren County, Mississippi in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1882 to 1885. A Republican, he lived on south Farmer Street in Vicksburg.^[1]

He was a defendant in a lawsuit regarding the weighing of cotton by the city of Vicksburg.^{[2] [3]} His appointment as a post office clerk in Vicksburg by Henry Roberts Pease elicited objections because Coates was African American.^[4]

See also

• African-American officeholders during and following the Reconstruction era

Notes and References

1. Web site: Milton Coates – Against All Odds.
2. Web site: 51 Miss. 335 (Miss. 1875), Gaines v. Coates. vLex.
3. Book: Cases Argued and Decided in the Supreme Court of Mississippi. 1879. E. W. Stephens publishing Company.
4. Book: Dray, Philip. Capitol Men: The Epic Story of Reconstruction Through the Lives of the First Black Congressmen. April 4, 2008. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 978-0618563708. Google Books.