Joseph R. Holmes (c. 1838-May 3, 1869) was a slave who worked as a shoemaker, and after being emancipated during the American Civil War became a farmer and politician in Charlotte County, Virginia.
[3] On October 23, 1867, Holmes and Edward Nelson[4] (also African American) were elected to represent Charlotte and Halifax Counties in the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1868.
[5] Holmes defeated former Confederate and Virginia Supreme Court justice Wood Bouldin, and was one of the African American delegates most ridiculed in the conservative press.
He was also literate and wrote letters to the local Freedmen's Bureau agent, advocating establishment of a school in Keysville, Virginia.
A confrontation occurred on the courthouse steps in broad daylight before a large crowd, and Holmes (who was unarmed) was shot dead.