John Baptis (J. B.) Rayner (1850-1918) was born to Mary Ricks, a slave, and white congressman and planter Kenneth Rayner. After working on his father’s plantation, Rayner attended Shaw University and St. Augustine’s Normal and Collegiate Institute with help from his father. Rayner became a teacher in Tarboro, North Carolina, where he also held local political offices with the Republican Party during Reconstruction.
Upon Rayner’s return to Texas, he gained notoriety as a proponent of prohibition and soon joined the Populist Party. While touring on behalf of the party, he quickly gained a reputation as one of the greatest orators of the day, regardless of race. Rayner continued his fight for black rights even after the Populist movement collapsed and he returned to the Republican Party. He pushed especially hard for black vocational schools, and served as President of Conroe Porter Industrial College. Rayner dedicated his life to fighting Jim Crow laws, spent his last years pushing for the inclusion of African Americans in the armed forces during World War I.
Source:
Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "Rayner, John Baptis" http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/RR/fra52.html (accessed June 9, 2010).
From the guide to the Rayner (J. B. ) Papers 73-131., 1903-1919, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin)
