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WALLS, Josiah Thomas (1842-1905)
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WALLS, JOSIAH THOMAS, a Representative from Florida; born in Winchester, Frederick County, Va., December 30, 1842; received a limited schooling; engaged in truck farming; moved to Florida; delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1868; served in the State senate 1869-1872; presented credentials as a Member-elect to the Forty-second Congress and served from March 4, 1871, to January 29, 1873, when he was succeeded by Silas L. Niblack, who contested his election; elected as a Republican to the Forty-third Congress (March 4, 1873-March 3, 1875); presented credentials as a Member-elect to the Forty-fourth Congress and served from March 4, 1875, to April 19, 1876, when he was succeeded by Jesse J. Finley, who contested his election; resumed his occupation as truck farmer; died in Tallahassee, Fla., May 15, 1905; interment in the Negro Cemetery.

  • "Josiah Thomas Walls" in Black Americans in Congress, 1870-2007. Prepared under the direction of the Committee on House Administration by the Office of History & Preservation, U.S. House of Representatives. Washington: Government Printing Office, 2008.
  • Klingman, Peter D. "Josiah T. Walls and the Black Tactics of Race in Post Civil War Florida." Negro History Bulletin 37 (April 1974): 242-47.
  • ___. Josiah Walls, Florida's Black Congressman of Reconstruction. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1976.
  • ___. "Josiah Walls, Florida's Black Congressman of Reconstruction." Ph.D. diss., University of Florida, 1972.