He was a Republican Party organizer and served as sheriff in Panola County, Mississippi during the Reconstruction era.
He served at the January 1868 "Black and Tan" Republican Party convention held in Jackson, Mississippi.
[2] As sheriff in Mississippi toward the end of the Reconstruction era, he tried to stem rampant Ku Klux Klan paramilitary violence.
[4] The Mississippi Historical Society published an account in 1913 of the Reconstruction era in Panola County lamenting "negro-carpetbag" rule and the Republicans' "Scalawag" supporters.
[5] His work organizing African American Republicans led to its candidates being referred to as the Ozanne faction.