T. Gillis Nutter

T. Gillis Nutter, first elected to the West Virginia Legislature in 1918.

Thomas Gillis Nutter (1876-19XX), commonly known by his middle name, was an attorney, businessman, and politician in the American state of West Virginia. Nutter is best remembered as a pioneer African-American member of the West Virginia Legislature, gaining election in 1918 and re-election in 1920. As head of the West Virginia National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Nutter was instrumental in bringing a suit in 1929 which ended the racial segregation of public libraries in West Virginia.

Biography

Early years

T. Gillis Nutter was born on June 15, 1876 in Princess Anne, Maryland. He attended public school in Maryland, gaining an interest in jurisprudence at an early age.[1] Following graduation he went on to attend Howard University in Washington, DC, from which he graduated with a law degree in 1899.[1]

Nutter's father died shortly after graduation and he was forced to come home to Maryland to take care of his mother.[2] During this period he was appointed to a position as principal of a school in Fairmount.[2] He remained in this position for two academic years, leaving in June 1901.[2]

In the summer of 1901, Nutter began preparing to resume his career as a lawyer. He was admitted to the Bar at Marion County, Indiana on November 13, 1901.[2]

Nutter relocated to Charleston, West Virginia to open a legal office. He built his practice as an attorney for several large firms in the city.[1] As a stature grew in the community, Nutter became actively involved in the organization of the Mutual Savings and Loan Company of Charleston, at the time the only African-American-owned bank in the state of West Virginia.[1]

After a time Nutter moved from his private legal practice to government employment, taking a position with the West Virginia State Auditor's office as an Assistant Land Clerk.[1] He would remain in that position for a total of six years.[1] In 1915 Nutter was the author of a bill introduced into the West Virginia legislature and passed, amending the state's tax laws.[2]

Political career

Nutter moved from government employee to political candidate in 1918, when he entered the primary election as a Republican candidate for the West Virginia state legislature. Nutter's candidacy was actively supported by former Governor George W. Atkinson and other leaders of the West Virginia political establishment.[2] Nutter won election in November by a margin of 1,388 votes over his Democratic opponent.[2]

Nutter was re-elected to a second term in November 1920.[1] He served on the House Judiciary Committee during his second term.[1]

Associations, personal and political

On December 18, 1920, T. Gillis Nutter married Sarah H. Meriweather, herself a Howard University graduate who in 1909 was one of the founders of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the nation's first African-American sorority.[1]

Nutter was active in a number of fraternal orders. In 1913 he was elected the national leader of the Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the World.[3] Nutter served a one-year term as the order's "Grand Exalted Ruler," during which time he was credited for creating and reinstating more local lodges than at any time since a merger of the organization in 1910.[3]

In 1928 Nutter also served as the West Virginia state head of the Knights of Pythias.[4]

Gillis Nutter's brother, Isaac, was prominent in the Republican political establishment in the state of New Jersey until his 1928 defection to the Democrats.[4]

In 1929, T. Gillis Nutter, as head of the West Virginia section of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Persons was instrumental in the desegregation of the state's public libraries.[5] Upon hearing complaints that black citizens were being denied admission to public libraries, Nutter and fellow black attorney C.E. Kimbrough filed a writ of error with the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.[5] The court agreed with the plaintiffs that public libraries were not schools and thus not subject to existing Jim Crow "separate but equal" rules.[5]

See also

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Thomas G. Nutter," West Virginia Archives and History, West Virginia Division of Culture and History, 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Men of the Month: Two Negro Legislators," The Crisis, vol. 17, no. 3, whole no. 99 (Jan. 1919), pg. 123.
  3. 1 2 R.W. Thompson, "Elks' Grand Lodge to Meet Aug. 25: Selects Norfolk, V., for Antlers' Big Gathering... Large and Influential Secret Order Well Pleated With Progress Made Under Grand Exalted Ruler T. G. Nutter," Indianapolis Recorder, Aug. 15, 1914.
  4. 1 2 "Nutter Brothers Split, One Democrat, One Republican," Baltimore Afro-American, Nov. 3, 1928, pg. 7.
  5. 1 2 3 NAACP: Celebrating a Century, 100 years in Pictures. Gibbs Smith Publishers, 2009; pg. 72.
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