Rhecha Robert Ross (1907-1980)

Rhecha R. Ross as he appeared in the early 1960s.

  The Strangest Names In American Political History's Black History month theme continues, and in the case of Michigan Republican Rhecha Robert Ross, obscurity again prevails. While he may have run several candidacies for political office in his native Michigan, there is a pronounced lack of sources giving note as to the particulars of Ross' life, including his formative years, education, and marriage. The son of Robert and Anna Ross, Rhecha Robert Ross was born in South Carolina in 1907.

  Ross is recorded with his family as a resident of Spartanburg County, South Carolina in the U.S. Census of 1910. Following his removal to Michigan at an unknown date, Ross was employed as a factory worker for General Motors Corporation for an indeterminate period. Despite the distinct lack of sources regarding Ross, a 1941 edition of the Detroit Tribune shines some light on a decidedly non-political aspect of his life--singing. Remarked as an "outstanding young tenor", Ross performed at the Detroit Insitute of Arts in early 1941, and also gave recitals at several white and black churches in his city. The Tribune would further relate that the:

"Followers of the vocalist say that he possesses a voice of unusual quality and vibrance and that his years of study have not robbed him of his naturalness and interprative ability."

 In addition to performing, Ross was an "announcer, soloist, and music director" for a religious radio program in the mid-1940s, titled "Signs of the Times". Ross would continue his singing career after entering politics, and in 1956 is noted as having a choral group, "the Charioteers", which performed at a homecoming gathering at Detroit's New Testament Baptist Church.

From the Detroit Free Press, August 1, 1954.

  Ross launched his first bid for statewide office in 1954 when he entered into the Republican primary race for state senator from Michigan's 4th senatorial district. In August 1954 he came up short in the vote count, polling 1,329 votes to John McLeod's winning total of 7,986. Undeterred, Ross made another bid for a state senate seat in the August 1960 Republican primary and would place third in the vote count on election day. This year would also see him lose the contest for Republican presidential elector from Michigan.
  With three losing candidacies behind him, Ross was afforded a measure of consolation with his service as a member of the Michigan Republican State Central Committee, of which he was a member for over two decades. In March 1965 he was elected as secretary of the Rules and Regulations Committee for that body, becoming the first of his race to be so honored.
  In 1966 Rhecha Ross announced his bid for a seat in Congress, and won the Republican nomination that year, unopposed. Hoping to oust Democratic U.S. Representative John Conyers (1929-2019), Ross did not fare well on election day, being trounced by Conyers, 89,808 votes to 16,853. Despite this lopsided contest, Ross attempted one further candidacy in 1970, being an unsuccessful aspirant for the Michigan state senate from the 8th senatorial district. Little else is known of Ross' life after 1970, excepting notice of his death at age 72 on January 5, 1980. A burial location for him remains unknown at this time.

 From the Detroit Tribune, March 27, 1965.

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Horatius Holipheal Coleman (1892-1969)

  Portrait from Jet Magazine, April 14, 1966.

   Horatius Holipheal Coleman was for over sixty years a Baptist minister, thirty-six of which were spent in the pastorate of Detroit, Michigan's Greater Macedonian Baptist Church. A founding organizer of the Progressive National Baptist Convention and a close friend of the Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. (1899-1984), Coleman had fleeting involvement in politics in 1950 when he sought the Democratic nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan's 1st congressional district. 

   Born in Sandersville, Georgia on February 22, 1892, Coleman was first called to the ministry at age fourteen and would attend both the Georgia Baptist College and Morehouse College. By 1920 he had married to Mamie Jordan and, along with a daughter, Juanita (born 1914), is recorded in that year's census as a resident of Atlanta, where he was employed as a construction company plasterer. In 1924 Coleman and his family removed to Detroit, and in that year took the pastorate of the Greater Institutional Baptist Church. He served in that role for eight years and after leaving that pastorate, joined the New Bethel Baptist Church as its pastor for one year.

   In 1933 Horatius H. Coleman accepted the pastorate of the Greater Macedonian Baptist Church, where he would serve until his death thirty-six years later. His lengthy tenure with that church saw him garner the title "the Dean of Baptist Ministers" from his fellow clergymen and is remarked as having:

"Worked constantly for civic and social improvement; and his wisdom was relied upon widely among his people in political affairs for governmental progress."

  Three years following his joining the Greater Macedonia Baptist Church, Coleman traveled to Atlanta, Georgia as a guest evangelist to lead a revival at the Ebenezer Baptist Church. Attending this revival were Coleman's friend and fellow Baptist pastor Martin Luther King Sr. (then president of the Atlanta Baptist Minister's Union) and the latter's seven-year-old son, Martin Luther King Jr. During Coleman's services at the revival, the future civil rights icon was baptized at Ebenezer Baptist Church on May 3, 1936. 
   Following his services in Atlanta, Coleman returned to his pastorship in Detroit and in 1938 welcomed the birth of a son, Horatius Holipheal Jr. The 1940s saw Coleman active in YMCA work and in 1950 made his first and only foray into the political field, becoming a Democratic candidate for U.S. Representative from Michigan. Hoping to represent that state's first congressional district, Coleman was one of seven candidates vying for the nomination in that year's Democratic primary, which also included incumbent representative George Sadowski (1903-1961). When the votes were tallied on September 12, 1950, Horatius Coleman placed third, polling 5,897 votes. While he may have lost that election, Coleman saw George Sadowski also go down to defeat, being bested by Thaddeus M. Machrowicz. Machrowicz would later go on to win the general election that November and served in Congress until his resignation in 1961.

From the Detroit Free Press, September 15, 1950.

  In the years following his brief flirtation with politics Horatius Coleman continued in his Detroit pastorate and was also called as a guest pastor on several occasions. In November 1959 he led an eight-day revival at Indianapolis' 25th Street Baptist Church, and in 1961 aided in the organization of the Progressive National Baptist Convention. Six years prior to his death Coleman realized a lifelong goal to visit the Holy Land and in 1966-67 participated in the Greater Macedonian Baptist Church's Ebony subscription drives that brought in several thousand dollars in donations. 

  Horatius Holipheal Coleman died in Detroit on December 13, 1969, at age 77, and public service continued in his family with his paternal great-grandson Kendrick B. Meek (born 1966), a four-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida and a candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2010.

From the Indianapolis Recorder, November 7, 1959.

Ashmun Asaph Knappen (1828-1909)

From "Free Masonry In Michigan: A Comprehensive History of Michigan Masonry", 1895.

    Methodist minister Ashmun Asaph Knappen is another example of an oddly named clergyman having a brief flirtation with politics, in his case being the Prohibition nominee for U.S. Representative from Michigan's 3rd district in 1896. A native of Vermont, Knappen was born in the town of Sudbury on September 4, 1828, being the son of the Rev. Mason and Clarissa (Hutchinson) Knappen. A Congregationalist minister, Mason Knappen removed with his family to Michigan in 1833 via horse-drawn wagons through Canada, a four-week trip that reportedly left the young Ashmun "deeply impressed".

    Knappen's education occurred at the Branch Academy in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and married in Kalamazoo in August 1851 to Sarah Jane "Jennie" Stafford (1830-1908), to whom he was wed until her death. The couple would later have six children, Helen, Ida, Harriett, Nelly, Frank, and George Frederick (1867-1952). Of these children Frank E. Knappen made inroads into local politics, being city prosecuting attorney for Kalamazoo from 1880-89 and a Republican Presidential Elector for Michigan in 1904. 

   Ashmun A. Knappen resided in Hastings, Michigan from 1850-57, where he edited the Barry County Pioneer newspaper. In the late 1850s, he moved to Kalamazoo, where he began studying law with Julius Caesar Burrows (1837-1915), who would go on to represent Michigan in both houses of Congress for over three decades. 

    Admitted to the state bar in 1859, Knappen established a law practice in Kalamazoo with Burrows that continued for several years, and by 1867 had formed another law firm with Rufus Grosvenor. In the following year, Knappen had a religious calling, partly influenced by his wife and friends who had "induced him to attend a business men's morning prayer meeting." Now caught between wanting to continue in the practice of law or to devote his life to religious work, Knappen decided upon the latter, and by the fall of 1868 had joined the Michigan Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

   Soon after his admittance to the Michigan Conference Knappen was dispatched to Constantine, Michigan, where he accepted a pastorate.  In 1869 he would take on another pastorate in Sturgis (remaining there until 1870) and from 1871-72 preached in Manistee. For the next decade, Knappen would preach in Coldwater, Lansing, Battle Creek, and Grand Rapids and by 1883 had settled into a pastorate in Hastings. He continued to preach until 1890 and afterward "lived a retired life at Albion."

    An active Mason in addition to his pastorate, Knappen was for many years the Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Michigan. A temperance advocate, Knappen entered the political life of Michigan in 1896 when he was nominated for the U.S. House of Representatives on the Prohibition ticket. Hoping to represent his state's 3rd congressional district, Knappen was one of three candidates that year and on election day in November lost out in a very lopsided contest, garnering only 441 votes compared to Democratic candidate Albert M. Todd's winning total of 24,466.

   A.A. Knappen continued to reside in Albion, Michigan into his twilight years and was widowed in 1908. He followed his wife Sarah in death one year later on June 17, 1909, at age 80. Both were interred at the Riverside Cemetery in Albion.