Thomas A. Sykes, ca. 1835 - ca. 1900

Thomas A. Sykes
from composite photograph of
Tennessee House of Representatives,
42nd General Assembly, 1881-1882,
TSLA Collection.

A former member of the North Carolina Legislature; a U.S. Revenue official; and a partner in two Nashville stores, he was elected to represent Davidson County in the 42nd Tennessee General Assembly, 1881-1882.

The 1870 census for North Carolina, which indicated that Sykes could not read or write, showed that he and his wife Martha had three young daughters and listed his occupation as "Representative." During the 1870s and 1880s Sykes joined city councilman James C. Napier and others in a local reform movement against Mayor Thomas A. Kercheval's powerful political machine. The group made significant progress in moving African Americans into city jobs - blacks soon worked as bridge watchmen, public works employees, boss of a street construction crew, and captain of a Negro fire company.

Although a total of 12 black legislators served in the General Assembly in the 1880s, by the end of the decade there were none. Thomas Sykes was not re-elected after his term ended in 1882, and his career after that point serves as a poignant example of the effects of the Jim Crow laws on black Southerners. Thomas Sykes came to Tennessee a respected U.S. Revenue collector and gauger. However, by 1890, the first term in a decade in which there were no African Americans seated in the Tennessee legislature, this former legislator was working as an elevator operator at the United States Customhouse.