Tourgee Focus of August 17 Program

Albion Tourgée, whose books and papers are part of the Chautauqua County Historical Society’s permanent collection, will be the focus of an August 17 program in Mayville.

The presentation will be in the Sid Compton Room at 2 Academy Street.

The Chautauqua Township Historical Society will host the program, presented by Mike Rohlin, a local historian and history teacher at Chautauqua Lake Central School. 

Tourgée, one of the foremost abolitionists before the Civil War, served as a judge in North Carolina during Reconstruction. After Reconstruction, he turned to writing and publishing. His novel, A Fool’s Errand, was a bestseller. He moved to Mayville in 1881 and continued his successful writing career. In 1896, he defended Plessy in the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court case that yielded the “separate but equal” ruling.

Tourgée is credited with the expression “color blind justice” for which he fought his entire adult life. He is buried in the Mayville Cemetery.