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WESTFIELD – Albion Tourgee was a champion of civil rights.


In 1896, he brought the first challenge to segregation to the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson, where he argued “separate but equal” public transportation facilities for black and whites in Louisiana were unconstitutional.


That case would later be overturned by Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas in 1954.


A veteran of the Civil War, Tourgee also received numerous death threats for his work with blacks while a judge in North Carolina. While there, he helped to rewrite the state’s Constitution after the war.


Born in Ashtabula, Ohio., he also authored the first anti-lynching laws in the country and was a best selling author.


And, still, Tourgee, a native of Mayville, considered his life a failure.


“When he died, he felt like a failure because things still weren’t equal,” said James O’Brien, president of the Chautauqua County Historical Society. “Tourgee is well known around the African American community, and he’s been completely forgotten by the rest of the country.”


In an effort to draw attention to the Mayville native, the Chautauqua County Historical Society recently partnered with the Robert H. Jackson Center in Jamestown for a year-long exhibit featuring historic documents from the Tourgee collection, which includes more than 11,000 items. The event also included nationally-recognized speakers from around the country.


“The Center has been thrilled to host such a meaningful exhibit,” said Adam Bratton, Robert J. Jackson Center executive director. “The fact that two meaningful participants in the discussion of the validity of the ‘separate but equal’ issue came from Chautauqua County is something for our residents to explore and learn from. Our partnership with the Historical Society has resulted in a large number of residents and visitors learning about a man who is largely unknown.”


According to O’Brien, planning for the exhibit began more than a year ago.


“What I really wanted to do was find a collection that had broad appeal, and civil rights was the conclusion I came to,” he said. “What I was trying to do was focus attention on the collections that not just my organization has under its care and control, but what all these small historical societies in Chautauqua County have. I wanted to draw attention to one collection that would generate interest among the public. It was a major undertaking for an organization like ours which is all membership driven and all volunteers.”


O’Brien said the Jackson Center was the ideal location to hold the exhibit, and the Historical Society was able bring additional items for the display that it wouldn’t be able to show at the McClurg Museum in Westfield.


 “We can’t do that at our place. We have a small exhibit,” O’Brien said. “(At the Jackson Center), we have five display cases and walls, so we were able to bring in furniture and things that actually belonged to Tourgee to round it out.”


While the exhibit has since been taken down, Bratton said a large number of people came out to see the display, including students, area residents and visitors from outside of the region.


“Everyone was just blown away, particularly people who live here,” Bratton said. “They recognize the house in Mayville, but they’re just blown away that this man lived here and was from here.”


The exhibit drew such a crowd and positive feedback that Bratton said the center decided to keep the items on display much longer than they intended.


“This was only supposed to be up for three months,” Bratton said. “We had such good feedback and thought it was a good connection between Jackson and civil rights that we were able to keep it up.”


However, the exhibit is still accessible online at the McClurg Museum’s Web site, www.mclurgmuseum.org. O’Brien said there are slide shows, a pdf version of the exhibition’s guide and copies of guest speaker’s discussions.


“Even though the seating capacity at the Jackson Center is two hundred, many thousands of people have access to the information online,” O’Brien said.


O’Brien said the New York Council for the Humanities, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation and the Chautauqua County  Bar Association played a major role in making the exhibit successful.


Both O’Brien and Bratton hope the exhibit allowed visitors to learn more about a man important to the civil rights movement that not many know about.


“Tourgee was significant for a number of reasons,” O’Brien said. “He started the first national civil rights organization in America. He gave the primary eulogy for Frederick Doughlas in Boston at the invitation of the family. He was very significant because civil rights was a life-long burning passion for him. He dedicated his entire life to the cause of freedom.”


For more information on the Tourgee collection, contact the McClurg Museum at 326-2977 or e-mail mcclurg@fairpoint.net.

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