Ezekiel Gillespie (1818-1892)

Summary Label

Activist for black male suffrage that defended this right before the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 1866.

Name

Ezekiel Gillespie (1818-1892)

Date of Birth

May 31, 1818

Date of Death

March 31, 1892

State Assigned Gender

Male

Hometown or Region

Greene County, Tennessee

Freedom Status

Transition

Occupation

Grocer

Biography

Argued for Black male suffrage before the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 1866.

Ezekiel Gillespie was born on May 31, 1818, in Greene County, Tennessee, to his enslaver and an enslaved woman on the plantation. Gillespie is a significant figure because he attempted to cast his vote in the 1865 gubernatorial election of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, under the 1849 referendum in the state, indirectly granting Black male suffrage. The Black male suffrage movement in Wisconsin was a local movement that included lesser-known black individuals in Milwaukee. Nevertheless, Gillespie’s case was funded by Sherman Booth, the former owner of the newspaper Daily Life of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The lawyer who assisted with Ezekiel Gillespie’s case was Byron Paine, Wisconsin’s leading civil rights lawyer and former liberal Supreme Court Justice. Outside of his Supreme Court case of 1866, Ezekiel Gillespie worked as a self-employed retailer of small goods or produce in Indiana. Moreover, Gillespie and his second wife, Catherine, started founded the first African Methodist Episcopal Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Finally, Ezekiel Gillespie passed in Chicago, Illinois, on March 31, 1892.

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Student Researcher

Gwendolyn Dickey