Florida Republican Congressman Josiah Walls
Grand Old Partisan salutes Josiah Walls, born in Virginia, December 30th 1842. Confederates forced him into servitude until freed by Union troops. This patriotic American-American then enlisted in the Union Army and deployed to Florida.
Union restored, Walls remained in the state. After teaching at a Freedmen's Bureau school, he bought a farm. As a Republican, he was elected to the 1868 constitutional convention, then the state house, and then the state senate.
Surviving an assassination attempt, in 1870 Walls defeated an ex-Confederate for the U.S. House of Representatives. After two re-elections, he was elected again to the state senate.
"We demand that our lives, our liberties, and our property shall be protected by the strong arm of our government, that it gives us the same citizenship that it gives to those who it seems would sink our every hope for peace, prosperity, and happiness into the great sea of oblivion."
Years later, Walls was mayor of Gainesville and county commissioner. After his political career, he raised citrus fruit and managed the farm of what would become Florida A & M University.
Back to Basics for the Republican Party is my civil rights history of the GOP. To quote the book: "The more we Republicans know about the history of our party, the more Democrats will worry about the future of theirs. For more information, see www.grandoldpartisan.com.
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Michael Zak is author of Back to Basics for the Republican Party, a history of GOP civil rights achievement.
Each day, his YouTube videos and TikTok videos and Rumble videos and Grand Old Partisan blog celebrate more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. And, see Speech Raves for audience feedback from his presentations in thirty-one states.
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