Texas Legislators: Past & Present

Meshack Roberts

Full Name: Meshack R. "Shack" Roberts
Birth date: 1821
Death date: Deceased, date unknown

Terms of Service

House, 15th ⁽³⁾ Legislature
4/18/1876 - 1/14/1879
Republican
House, 14th ⁽¹⁾ Legislature
1/13/1874 - 4/18/1876
Republican
House, 13th ⁽²⁾ Legislature
1/14/1873 - 1/13/1874
Republican

(1) Republican. Directory of the Members and Officers of the Fourteenth Legislature of the State of Texas . . . 1874.
(2) Republican. Directory of the Members of the Thirteenth Legislature of the State of Texas 1873.
(3) Mentioned in "The news from Austin . . . Resignations of Representative Barziza and four others accepted after critical debate . . . Hunter restored to his seat . . . Other resignations not improbable," Thursday, 8/3/1876, p. 1. Galveston Daily News .

Biographical Notes and Resources

Resolutions and Journal entries

79th Legislature, R.S., HR 589, paying tribute to African American legislators and constitutional convention delegates of 1868-1900. Resolutions - Congratulatory and Honorary .
85th Legislature, R.S., HR 452, celebrating Black History Month and honoring the leadership and vision of African American lawmakers. Resolutions - Congratulatory and Honorary .
88th Legislature, R.S., SCR 13, Recognizing the Texas Black Reconstruction Legislators Recognition Act. SB 667, Texas Black Reconstruction Legislators Recognition Act. Resolutions - Congratulatory and Honorary . SB 667 SCR 13
88th Legislature, R.S., SCR 13, Recognizing the Texas Black Reconstruction Legislators Recognition Act. SB 667, Texas Black Reconstruction Legislators Recognition Act. Resolutions - Legislative Policy . SB 667 SCR 13

Photographs

Photograph. Meschack (Shack) R. Roberts, State Preservation Board
Photograph. S. Roberts, DeGolyer Library, SMU, Lawrence T. Jones III Texas Photographs
Photograph. S. Roberts, State Preservation Board
Photograph. S. Roberts, State Preservation Board

Other Resources

Biographical sketch, p. 115. A History of Upshur County, Texas 1966.
Harrison County "continued to support a Republican delegation to the state legislature" in 1873: Webster Flanagan to the State Senate, Shack Roberts ("black leader from Harrison County") and Ed Brown ("Negro from Rusk County, as a representative of the two county district") to the House, p. 310. A Southern Community in Crisis: Harrison County, Texas, 1850-1880 1983.
Shack Roberts, Republican state representative, pp. 308, 310, 313-314,325; "redemption" election of 1878, pp. 354, 364. A Southern Community in Crisis: Harrison County, Texas, 1850-1880 1983.
Mentioned, p. 67. Black Texans: a History of African Americans in Texas, 1528-1995 1996.
Portrait and biographical sketch. Forever Free: Nineteenth Century African-American Legislators and Constitutional Convention Delegates of Texas 2002.
ROBERTS, MESHACK (?-?). Handbook of Texas Online .
Mentioned in Minority Civil Rights and the Texas Legislature 2018.
Mentioned in Negro Legislators of Texas and Their Descendants 1970.
Biographical sketch, Meshack Roberts, pp. 65-68, 72. Negro Legislators of Texas and Their Descendants: A History of the Negro in Texas Politics from Reconstruction to Disfranchisement 1935.
Biographical sketch, S.R. Roberts, pp. 68-69. "He is fifty-eight years old." Sketches of Legislators and State Officers, Fifteenth Legislature, 1876-1878 1876.
Biographical sketch, Chapter VI, "Black Belt Politics," pp. 103-104. The Negro in Texas, 1874-1900 1971.
Biographical sketch, pp. 38, 40. Birth year 1821, Appendix D. Through Many Dangers, Toils, and Snares: Black Leadership in Texas, 1868-1898 2016.
Mentioned, pp. 98, 135. Time of Hope, Time of Despair: Black Texans During Reconstruction 1981.