WEBB, FRANK J. (?-?). Frank J. Webb, a black political leader and newspaper editor in Galveston, formerly resided in Jamaica. He was employed by the federal government before arriving in Texas. Webb edited the Galveston Republican, a weekly publication that supported Radical Republican policies during the early 1870s. He attempted unsuccessfully to secure a state printing contract from Republican governor Edmund J. Davisqv and criticized party leaders who failed to award government jobs to black Republicans. Webb served as an alternate delegate to the 1876 Republican State convention. Little other information exists concerning Webb's public life. He may have been the same Frank J. Webb who taught at and administered black public schools in Galveston for a number of years during the 1880s and 1890s.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Harrel Budd, The Negro in Politics in Texas, 1867-1898 (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1925). Dallas Herald, December 3, 1870. Carl H. Moneyhon, Republicanism in Reconstruction Texas (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1980). Merline Pitre, Through Many Dangers, Toils and Snares: The Black Leadership of Texas, 1868-1900 (Austin: Eakin, 1985).
Paul M. Lucko
