Walls, Josiah Thomas, 1842-1905

Josiah Thomas Walls (December 30, 1842 – May 15, 1905) was a United States congressman who served three terms in the U.S. Congress between 1871 and 1876. He was one of the first African Americans in the United States Congress elected during the Reconstruction Era, and the first black person to be elected to Congress from Florida. He also served four terms in the Florida Senate.

Josiah Walls was born into slavery in 1842 near Winchester, Virginia. During the American Civil War, he was forced to join the Confederate army and work in support. He was captured by the Union Army in 1862 at Yorktown. He voluntarily joined the United States Colored Troops in 1863 and rose to the rank of corporal. He was discharged in Florida and settled in Alachua County, Florida.

Walls served as a delegate to the state constitutional convention of 1868, representing Alachua County. Later that year, he was elected to the Florida House of Representatives from Alachua, along with his friend, Henry Harmon, serving in Florida's first Reconstruction Legislature.