[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 83 (Tuesday, June 23, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1206-E1207]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    JAMES H. BAKER--A MAN OF HISTORY

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JAMES A. BARCIA

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 23, 1998

  Mr. BARCIA. Mr. Speaker, in each of our communities we have the 
legacy of historic figures who worked to make a difference. In my 
district and my home town of Bay City, we have the privilege of having 
been the home of James Baker, the first black to run for a statewide 
public office in Michigan. His candidacy was one hundred years ago this 
month, and is a point of history of importance to all Americans.
  Les Arndt has written an informative review of James Baker in the 
June 1998 issue of Wonderful Times, I submit this article to be 
included in the Record as part of my statement. I commend Mr. Arndt's 
column to all of our colleagues.

                 [From the Wonderful Times, June 1998]

                              Memory Lane

                             (By Les Arndt)

       On June 21, 1898, exactly 100 years ago this month, the 
     People's Party convention in Grand Rapids nominated Bay 
     Cityan James H. Baker for state land commissioner by 
     acclamation, and he became the first black to run for a 
     statewide public office in Michigan.
       Baker campaigned throughout Michigan, and excerpts from one 
     of his campaign posters, paid for by the Committee to Elect 
     James H. Baker, on October 12, 1898, read as follows: ``To 
     the colored citizens and other voters of Michigan: Whereas 
     the People's Party was the first to recognize a colored man 
     on the same ticket, therefore we ask your individual support 
     for James H. Baker. We know he is worthy and well qualified 
     to fill the position and recommend him for your 
     consideration. We beg you to advocate his cause, not for him 
     alone, for he is paving the way for others.''
       Bay City was newly chartered when James H. Baker came here 
     in 1867 to make his permanent home and become the keystone to 
     Bay City's black community, after he was mustered out of 
     the First Michigan Infantry as an orderly to General Ely 
     and meritorious service with a black Pennsylvania regiment 
     during several major Civil War campaigns.
       The city was still in its infancy, electing a prominent 
     lumberman, Nathan B. Bradley, as mayor only two years 
     previously in the historic first election under city charter, 
     which was held seven days before the end of the Civil War.
       When James H. Baker came here in the 1860s, he found only 
     six blacks residing in Bay City. He became a dominant figure 
     not only among fellow blacks but also as a community leader. 
     He bacame a barber, then policeman, and finally the proud 
     owner of the New Crescent Lunch Counter and Ladies' Dining 
     Room at 805 N. Water, which he boasted as ``serving no 
     alcoholic drinks.''
       He was a delegate to the First Colored Men's State 
     Convention at Battle Creek, March 25, 1884; a member of a 
     committee of Michigan Negroes who petitioned the state 
     lawmakers ``for the right of suffrage'' and avid backer to a 
     movement to send a black delegate-at-large to the Republican 
     National Convention in Chicago in the late 1880s.
       Baker was born in Manchester, Va., where his father, also 
     James H., landed after emigrating from Ireland. A son, Oscar 
     W., was born here in August 1879, and he was scarcely six 
     years old when he was struck by a Pere Marquette Railway 
     train at the 11th and Jefferson crossing and eventually lost 
     a leg. That unfortunate accident launched the Bakers' 
     longtime connection with the law.
       The father brought suit in young Oscar's name and won a 
     $5,000 judgment. Although bad investments contributed to the 
     dissipation of the cash before Oscar was 21, he went to the 
     University of Michigan Law School with monies earned as 
     secretary to Michigan Lt. Gov. Orin W. Robinson.
       Graduating from law school in 1902, Oscar began practice 
     here with white lawyer Lee E. Joslyn. In 1906, he brought 
     suit against the railroad on the grounds it had been a 
     mistake to pay the $5,000 without securing a bond from his 
     father. After winning in Circuit Court here, the Michigan 
     Supreme Court ruled against him, holding that payment of the 
     $5,000 to the attorneys who were to turn it over to the 
     Bakers qualified as a valid procedure.
       As a result of the case, insurance companies, railroads, 
     etc. began to require that a guardian be appointed for minors 
     in civil cases.
       Oscar, Sr. was the city's first black attorney, and he 
     became a master courtroom psychologist, especially in 
     criminal cases. He served as director for the association 
     which sponsored professional baseball here at the turn of the 
     century.
       James H. Baker's grandsons, Oscar J. and James W., were 
     long-time attorneys here, with the former founding what today 
     is the Baker & Selby law firm after graduation from the U-M 
     Law School in 1935. After practicing for nearly a half-
     century, Oscar Jr. has retired. In 1937, he was chairman of 
     the State Bar's legal redress committee, traveling the state 
     in helping blacks acquire their rights.

[[Page E1207]]

        In the mid-1960s Oscar Jr. joined the National Lawyer's 
     Guild voting rights promotion in Mississippi for two 
     consecutive summers, participating in civil rights marches. 
     He also participated in civil rights protests in Detroit.

     

                          ____________________