John Black

Who was John Black?

John Black was a Democratic politician who served one term as mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Black was born near Bitche, Lorraine, France. He attended college in Metz before moving with his family to the United States in 1844, settling near Lockport, New York. He moved with his wife to Milwaukee in 1857, where he started a wholesale wine and liquor business. Black was active in politics, having served in the Wisconsin State Assembly, the Wisconsin State Senate, the Milwaukee Common Council, and, in 1878, as Mayor of Milwaukee for a two-year term, a Democrat in a city largely Republican at the time. He appointed a fellow Democrat as police chief, who fired twenty-five Republican policemen. He was described by a contemporary, publisher William George Bruce, as "a tall, broad-shouldered, dark-bearded man, a positive character who spoke his mind freely and who called a spade a spade." Black was the Democratic nominee to the United States Congress in 1886, but was defeated by Henry Smith of the Union Labor Party.

He is buried at Calvary Cemetery in Milwaukee.