Alfred Fairfax
First African American Kansas state legislator. Born: Enslaved in Loudoun County, Virginia, March 1844. Married: Sarah A "Sallie", circa 1862. Died: Parsons, Labette County, Kansas, March 11, 1916.
Alfred Fairfax made important contributions to Kansas, as a colonizer, pastor, and as the state's first African American legislator.
Born into slavery in Loudoun County, Virginia, Fairfax reportedly attempted to escape a beating as a teenager in 1858, was caught, and sold to a trader who in turn sold him in Tensas Parish, Louisiana. He escaped his bondage in 1862 and organized a group of Black recruits to enlist in the Colored Troops in Union army. He learned to read in the army.
After the war, during Reconstruction, Fairfax became involved in the local and state Republican Party, holding several elective and appointive positions, and receiving a congressional nomination. Southern Democrats vigorously opposed his candidacy and attacked him as his house. In the ensuing fight, an attacker was killed and Fairfax decided to move his family to the North. He organized a group of 200 families from Louisiana to establish Little Caney Colony near Peru in Chautauqua County, Kansas.
Kansas had become a symbol of hope for many Southern political and economic refugees. The colony arrived in this "promised land" around January 7, 1880. Fairfax purchased 200 acres and planted cotton, among other farm crops. He established his own cotton gin, the Fairfax Ginning Company. By 1885 he was pastor of the New Hope Baptist Church in Parsons.
The Republican Party was important to many Black Kansans, including Alfred Fairfax. Aligning with this party of Lincoln, they were nominated, elected, and appointed to public offices. Fairfax achieved political distinction in November 1888 when his Chautauqua County neighbors chose him to represent them in the state legislature. Although few details regarding his single term are known, Representative Fairfax served as chairman of the House Committee on Immigration, received praise from the white and black press, and made "eloquent" pleas for fairness and equality of opportunity. All he asked was that "the sins committed by the enslavers of ... [the Negro] race be not forever charged against him and," Fairfax opined, "that the great state of Kansas, the glorious leader of every reform, shall not take a backward step by continuing to legalize distinction and discrimination against a loyal, brave and true race even though their faces be dark."
Entry: Fairfax, Alfred
Author: Kansas Historical Society
Author information: The Kansas Historical Society is a state agency charged with actively safeguarding and sharing the state's history.
Date Created: December 1969
Date Modified: January 2025
The author of this article is solely responsible for its content.
