‘Our State Needed This’: Sheriff Crosby honored in marker unveiling ceremony

VICKSBURG, Miss. (VDN) — A long-overdue marker honoring Warren County’s first African American sheriff, Peter Crosby, was unveiled in a ceremony this morning outside the Warren County Courthouse.

“There are over 1,700 historical markers in the state of Mississippi,” said William “Brother” Rogers, secretary-treasurer and director of the Programs and Communication Division at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. “The number of markers that talk about Reconstruction — you can count on one hand. Reconstruction is the most overlooked, underappreciated era in American history and in Mississippi history. Thank you to the committee for applying for a marker about an important story in Reconstruction.”

“Reconstruction for a long time was talked about as a failure,” Rogers continued. “But Reconstruction was actually a time of great promise, great hope, and great success — looking at the people who were intelligent, terrific, and path-breaking, like Sheriff Peter Crosby. So I’m grateful to all of you for recognizing the importance of Peter Crosby. His story is a microcosm of Reconstruction and what happened in that era. Our state — not just Warren County, not just Vicksburg — our state needed this marker.”

Much of the history of Sheriff Crosby is thanks to the work of Dr. Al Dorsey, who wrote his doctoral dissertation on Crosby in 2008. According to Dorsey, he shared an abstract of his dissertation with Yolanda Robbins, funeral director at Robbins Funeral Home, who passed away in 2018. Robbins later wrote an article for the then Vicksburg Evening Post about Crosby.

“That’s when town folks began to talk about Peter Crosby,” said Dorsey. “I didn’t discover Peter Crosby, obviously, but I’m the first one who sort of posited his story in a Black-centered context.”

Sheriff Crosby’s time in office was marked by turmoil after his 1873 election, including the “Vicksburg Massacre,” where approximately 300 recently freed African Americans were murdered. Crosby was subsequently indicted on false charges and removed from office. He was reinstated shortly thereafter by President Ulysses S. Grant, after then-Gov. Adelbert Ames fled the state.

“I can tell you as the sitting sheriff, there’s a lot of headache that comes with this job,” said Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace. “But there are also a lot of good things — you get to work with a lot of great people. But I cannot imagine the grit, determination, and dedication to his community that this man had to step forward at that period of time and offer himself up as the sheriff of Warren County — and for the people to elect him. I don’t care at what moment during his tenure you look at, I promise you: every day was a challenge. And he obviously met that challenge.”

In 1875, Crosby was shot in the head by one of his deputies in an assassination attempt, an injury from which he never fully recovered. He lost his bid for re-election later that same year.

No known photos of Crosby existed until 2015, when Warren Central High School student Michael Neal drew a portrait of him. That portrait now hangs in the Warren County Sheriff’s Office.