William Henry Grey ( December 22 , 1829 in Washington , D.C. &ndash; November 8 , 1888 in Helena , Arkansas ) was an African-American storeowner , church leader , and Reconstruction politician in Arkansas . The '' Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture '' calls Grey " a tireless fighter for the rights of freedmen . " Grey was born into freedom in December 1829 in Washington , D.C. , and moved with his family to Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , and then to Cincinnati , Ohio , in the 1840s . In 1852 , as an adult , he moved to St. Louis , Missouri , and found work as a cook on Mississippi River steamboats . In 1854 , he wed Henrietta Winslow , who became the mother of his eight children . A member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church , he was called to the ministry and became an AME lay minister . At some point he moved his family south from Missouri to the Arkansas Delta , a region with which he would already have been familiar through his steamboat duties . In 1865 , the closing year of the American Civil War , Grey was living in Helena , Arkansas , as the operator and part-proprietor of a grocery and bakery . He participated in the Little Rock African-American convention in that year , a gathering called to discuss the community 's response to the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment and the formal end of slavery in the United States . In 1868 , Grey was elected as a representative from Phillips County to the 1868 Arkansas Constitutional Convention , in which he was one of eight African-American delegates . The atmosphere of the 1868 convention was embittered by resentments stemming from the war . A minority of delegates , described as " Conservatives , " fought to prevent African-Americans from possessing the right to vote . Another issue was inter-racial marriage . Grey served on four of the convention 's standing committees , including those dealing with education and the right to vote . The new Arkansas constitution was ratified statewide with Republican support . As the new Arkansas government came into being , Grey 's Phillips County neighbors elected him to the state legislature for the 1868-1869 term . Grey subsequently briefly filled a vacancy in the Arkansas Senate in 1875 . Grey was elected clerk of the First Circuit Court and ex-officio Recorder of Deeds in 1870 . In 1872 , he was a delegate to the 1872 Republican National Convention held in Philadelphia . He was selected to co-second the nomination of Ulysses S. Grant for a second term as U.S. President . His speech is believed to have been the first address spoken by an African American to a presidential nominating convention of a major U.S. political party . Grey also , in 1872 , took on the duties of Arkansas Commissioner of Immigration and State Lands , as the state had not yet been fully settled and was highly dependent upon additional immigrants . He had to lay down these duties in 1874 after suffering a possible stroke . Grey returned to Helena and was selected as clerk of the Phillips County probate and county courts
1872 Republican National Convention
1872 Republican National Convention
William Henry Grey