Wendell Phillips
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Image:Wendell Phillips.jpg Wendell Phillips (29 November 1811 - 2 February 1884), born in Boston, Massachusetts, was an American abolitionist, Native American advocate and orator.
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Education
He was schooled at Boston Latin School, and graduated from Harvard in 1831. Afterwards, he went on to attend Harvard Law School from which he graduated in 1833. In 1834, Phillips was admitted to the state bar, and in the same year, he opened a law practice in Boston.
Abolitionism
Template:Quote box After being converted to the abolitionist cause by William Lloyd Garrison in 1836, he stopped practicing law in order to fully dedicate himself to the movement. He joined the American Anti-Slavery Society and frequently made speeches at its meetings. He even went so far as to eat no cane sugar and wear no cotton, since both were produced by southern slaves. In 1854 Phillips was indicted for participation in the attempt to free a captured fugitive slave by force from prison in Boston. It was Phillip's contention that racial injustice was the source of all society's ills. After the 15th Amendment was passed in 1870, Phillips concentrated on issues such as women's rights, universal suffrage, and temperance.
Equal rights for Native Americans
Phillips was also active in efforts to gain equal rights for Native Americans, arguing that the 15th Amendment also granted citizenship to Indians. He proposed that the Andrew Johnson administration create a cabinet-level post that would guarantee Indian rights. Phillips helped create the Massachusetts Indian Commission with Indian rights activist Helen Hunt Jackson and Massachusetts governor William Claflin. Although publicly critical of President Ulysses Simpson Grant's drinking, he worked with his second administration on the appointment of Indian agents. Phillips lobbied against military involvement in settling Native American problems on the western frontier. He accused General Philip Henry Sheridan of pursuing a policy of Indian extermination. Public opinion turned against Native American advocates after the Battle of the Little Bighorn, but Phillips continued to support the claims of the Lakota (Sioux). In the 1870's, Phillips arranged public forums for reformer Alfred B. Meacham and Indians affected by the country's removal policy, including Ponca chief Standing Bear and the Omaha Susette La Flesche.