"The-Lincoln-Union-Club"{February 16,1870}

The Lincoln Union Club served as an organization body for Virginia City's African American resident during the peak of the  Comstock era. Its mission and activities reflect both the remarkable optimism and confidence of African Americans in Northern Nevada during the 1870s.

For a brief period after the end of the Civil War,a sense of optimism was
noticeable in African American communities across the nation.With the Union victory and the resulting of the Thirteenth,Fourteenth,and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution,a new era of  promise
dawned,and African Americans began to take action to make the gains of this period real.Much of the activity was located in the South,where  the majority of African Americans lived at the time.African Americans in that region formed schools at a remarkable pace,with at least 150,000
students enrolled by 1870 funded by over $1,000,000 in contributions
from African Americans.In Addition, 1,456 African Americans held political office in the South during the Reconstruction years.

This optimism was not confined to the Southern States.Across the nation,African Americans organized groups to advocate for the civil rights legislation and enforcement of existing civil rights protections. In
some cases,this involved state or national conventions of African Americans,such as those held in Syracuse New York,in 1864 and Nashville,Tennessee, in 1870.Smaller groups emerged around the country as well,often openly associated with the Republican Party.
Denver had a black Republican Club in the 1870s.Groups such as the
Union League and Lincoln Brotherhood were founded across the nation
in order to organize and  mobilize African American votes for the Republican Party.

African American in Virginia City formed a similar group,the Lincoln Union Club,on February 16,1870.The Reconstruction-era optimism is
evident in a statement made by one of the members at the time of the group's founding.According to this member,"the object of our club is for
united political action throughout the state,in view of the good time coming." At this first meeting,Dr.W.H.C. was elected president for a six-month term,and five other officers were selected as well.

The Lincoln Union Club played a role in the organization of the celebration of the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment in April of
1870.The parade was scheduled to begin at the "Hall of  the Lincoln Union Club," demonstration that the club had acquired a permanent meeting place.The club existed until at least 1876.Not surprisingly, the
fortunes of the club faded as,simultaneously the boom period faded on the Comstock,and hope evaporated of civil rights in the post-Reconstruction era.