Early Years
Isaiah Leonard Lyons was born on or about August 23, 1843, in Monmouth, New Jersey, and was the son of a laborer, George Lyons, and Mary E. Lyons, who was a washerwoman after her husband's death in the 1850s. When he was about four years old the family moved to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. Lyons attended local schools and about age eleven he began working as an office boy for a physician in the town. Three years later he went to work as a clerk for a local African American druggist. In February 1860 Lyons's name appeared in print for the first time. The New York Weekly Anglo-African reported that he had delivered an address at the third annual Williamsburg Lyceum. On March 10, 1861, Lyons married a widow, Sarah Jane Williams Robinson, in Brooklyn. They had no children, but looked after a boy called Reuben Lyons, who had been born in Virginia about 1858.
Political Career
Appointed one of the registrars of voters for Hampton prior to the 1869 elections, Lyons ran against one of the white registrars, Martin McDevitt, for the seat in the Senate of Virginia representing the counties of Elizabeth City, Surry, Warwick, and York. On July 6, when most African Americans in the district voted for African American candidates and most white voters voted for white candidates, Lyons defeated McDevitt by a vote of 3,003 to 1,671, with 230 votes cast for a third person.
Lyons drew the most attention when he voted against ratification of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which Congress had made a requirement before seating senators and representatives from Virginia. At the beginning of the session, he and the other Republican members had objected that many white legislators had not and could not take an oath required by Congress stating that they had been loyal to the United States before and after the Civil War. Lyons consequently regarded the assembly as illegitimate and its actions as illegal. When the members of both houses of the assembly voted on October 8 to ratify the two amendments, Lyons therefore voted against them, the only African American member of the assembly to do so. That action drew criticism from northern and Republican newspapers but rare praise from the hostile Richmond Whig.
Death
Lyons attended the Senate of Virginia for the last time on February 11, 1871, and died on February 21 at his home in Hampton. The cause was heart disease presumably brought on by the typhoid fever and malaria he had contracted during the war. The senators passed a resolution of regret at his death and adjourned for the day in respect to his memory. They also voted on a resolution to pay his widow for the funeral expenses, but after reducing the sum from $150 to $52 the Senate could not muster the required number of votes to authorize payment and it did not pass. Lyons was buried with full Masonic honors in Union Cemetery in Brooklyn. In 1897–1898 the bodies buried there were reinterred in Cedar Grove Cemetery in Queens, New York.
Time Line
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ca. August 23, 1843 - Isaiah L. Lyons is born in Monmouth, New Jersey.
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ca. 1847 - Isaiah L. Lyons and his family move from New Jersey to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York.
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ca. 1854 - Isaiah L. Lyons begins working as an office boy for a physician in Brooklyn, New York.
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February 1860 - The New York Weekly Anglo-African reports that Isaiah L. Lyons delivered an address at the third annual Williamsburg Lyceum.
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March 10, 1861 - Isaiah L. Lyons and Sarah Williams Robinson, a widow, marry in Brooklyn, New York.
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September 4, 1863 - Isaiah L. Lyons enlists as a hospital steward in the 6th Regiment, United States Colored Troops.
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August 1864 - Isaiah L. Lyons contracts typhoid fever and malaria while on duty at Chaffin's Farm in New Market Heights, near Richmond.
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September 29, 1865 - Isaiah L. Lyons is mustered out of service with the United States Colored Troops.
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October 1, 1865 - Isaiah L. Lyons joins the staff of the Freedman's Hospital in Hampton as a hospital steward. His wife is a matron at the hospital.
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July 6, 1869 - Isaiah L. Lyons is elected to the Senate of Virginia, representing Elizabeth City, Surry, Warwick, and York counties. He is one of the first African American members of the General Assembly.
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October 8, 1869 - Isaiah L. Lyons votes against the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the only black member of the General Assembly to do so.
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June 7, 1870 - Isaiah L. Lyons joins five other senators in an unsuccessful attempt to eliminate segregation in public schools bill.
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June 13, 1870 - Isaiah L. Lyons votes with majority to pass the bill establishing free public schools in Virginia.
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February 11, 1871 - Isaiah L. Lyons attends the Senate of Virginia for the last time.
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February 21, 1871 - Isaiah L. Lyons dies of heart disease at his home in Hampton.
References
Further Reading
Cite This Entry
- APA Citation:
Salmon, E. J., & the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. Isaiah L. Lyons (1843–1871). (2018, April 20). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.EncyclopediaVirginia.org/Lyons_Isaiah_L_1843-1871.
- MLA Citation:
Salmon, Emily Jones and the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. "Isaiah L. Lyons (1843–1871)." Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, 20 Apr. 2018. Web. READ_DATE.
First published: July 25, 2016 | Last modified: April 20, 2018
Contributed by Emily Jones Salmon and the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. Emily Jones Salmon is retired senior editor in the Education and Outreach Division of the Library of Virginia, co-editor of The Hornbook of Virginia History (3rd–5th editions: 1983, 1994, and 2010), and co-author with John S. Salmon of Franklin County, Virginia, 1786–1986: A Bicentennial History (1993).