Journal of the Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of the State of Mississippi (1890)

The official record of the convention that disenfranchised Black Mississippi, and it places Isaiah T. Montgomery inside the committee that did it.

Full text pulled and searched directly, 2.1 MB, 172 occurrences of “Montgomery” reviewed in place rather than counted. Note the surname is also a Mississippi county and another delegate’s name (Montgomery — J. R. Binford), so a raw count is not a finding. Both facts below were read in context.

1. He was seated for Bolivar County

From the roll of delegates by county:

“Bolivar — G. P. Melchior, I. T. Montgomery.”

Bolivar County is Mound Bayou’s county. The founder of the town sat in this convention as one of its two delegates.

2. He sat on the Committee on Elective Franchise

This is the load-bearing fact, and it is stronger than any account of what he said. The committee roster, as printed:

“Elective Franchise, Apportionment and Elections — Messrs. Patty, George, Alcorn, Martin, of Adams; Powel, Magruder, Hudson, Burkitt, McLean, of Grenada; Lester, Richards, Allen, Blair, Boyd, McNeily Boothe, Simonton, Dean, McClurg, Hooker, Morgan, Reagan, of Newton; McGehee, of Wilkinson; Carter, Binford, Bell, Street, Harris, Guyton, Puryear, Reynolds, Robinson, of Union; Watson, Resan, of Claiborn; and Montgomery.”

He is listed last, after the semicolon, alone. The sole Black delegate was placed on the committee that wrote the franchise article.

3. What the Journal also shows him doing

At the procedural stage he offered a resolution, printed in full:

“Resolved, That every proposition or amendment to the Constitution shall be referred to the proper Committee without debate.”

A substitute by Mr. Muldrow displaced it and was itself amended and referred to the Committee on Rules. His one recorded motion in this stretch was a motion to move business out of open debate, and it did not carry in his form.

🔴 WHAT THIS DOCUMENT IS NOT

This is a Journal, not a record of debates. It records motions, referrals, rosters and votes. It does not contain Isaiah Montgomery’s August 1890 speech, and no part of that speech may be quoted or characterized from this record.

The speech is reported to have been printed in the New York World in September 1890 and is anthologized in Matthew Holden Jr., ed., “What Answer?” (2004). Neither has been obtained. Until one is read, the essay may state that he sat on the franchise committee — which this document proves — and may not state what he argued, which it does not.

⚠️ OCR caveats. The scan carries artifacts (Claiborn, McNeily Boothe without a comma, Resan for Reagan/Regan, sliall, tlie). Quotations above preserve the scan exactly. Any quotation lifted from this file must be re-read in place, and a clean printed edition should be consulted before anything from it reaches print.