P.B.S. Pinchback, died December 21, 1921

In 1892, P.B.S. Pinchback was part of the Comité des Citoyens (Citizens' Committee) which set up the New Orleans civil-rights actions of Homer Plessy as a challenge of segregationist laws in public transportation. 

The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court as Plessy v. Ferguson.  It was decided in favor of state laws requiring racial segregation in public transport.

Later Pinchback moved with his family to New York City, where he worked as a Marshal. Finally he moved to Washington, D.C.. He and his family were part of the mixed-race elite in Washington.  He took in his daughter and her son after her husband abandoned her, and helped raise his grandson. 

Pinchback died in Washington on December 21, 1921 at the age of 84.

His grandson, Nathan Eugene Pinchback Toomer (Jean Toomer), accompanied his grandfather's body to New Orleans.  

Pinchback Tomb, Metairie Cemetery

Pinchback was interred in a family tomb in Metairie Cemetery.  Metairie Cemetery had previously been reserved for whites only.

Some of his descendants married into the white community, others married into the black community.  His grandson, Jean Toomer (December 26, 1894 – March 30, 1967) became an American poet, novelist and an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance.  

Jean Toomer

As late as 1974, over fifty years after his death, Pinchback was still missing from the roster of governors in Louisiana State history textbooks.