The students of the Radical University: John T. Rafra

John Townsend Rafra (b. Abt. 1856)
South Carolina.  Black.
Occupation: carpenter, teacher, janitor.
Father's Occupation: farmer.

John T. Rafra was born in South Carolina to Isaac and Catherine Rafra.  His father worked as a farmer in Timmonsville, South Carolina.

Rafra registered at the University of South Carolina at some time between February 1875 and January 1876.  He was a college student following the modern studies track.  The university closed before he completed his degree.

After the university closure, Rafra returned to Timmonsville and worked as a teacher.  He was also involved in politics.  Around 1883, he testified before the U.S. House Committee on Elections.  The committee had been charged with investigating a contested election in the Congressional District that Rafra lived in (then the 1st District; now roughly the 7th).  In 1880, the Democratic incumbent John S. Richardson had defeated the Republican challenger Samuel L. Lee in the 1880 election, but Lee contested the outcome.  Lee argued that Richardson had only received a majority of the votes because his supporters had committed fraud, violence, and intimidation

Rafra testified in support of Lee's claim.  Rafra had been a federal supervisor of the election in Timmonsville. He explained that, on Election Day, he counted 75 people who cast votes for the Democratic candidate and then boarded a train to travel to a nearby town to (illegally) vote again. Despite the testimony of Rafra and a number of others, the committee upheld the outcome of the election.

In 1889, Rafra was appointed postmaster for Society Hill (a small town about 30 miles from Timmonsville).  The next year (in 1890) he had moved to Darlington (the county seat) and had returned to teaching.

Rafra left Darlington County and returned to Columbia in 1901.  Writing in 1911, fellow former U of SC student C. C. Scott reported that he was "employed at the government building in Columbia, rendering efficient service." Federal records show that he employed as a laborer in the federal courthouse and post-office.

Sources
1). 1880; Census Place: Timmonsville, Darlington, South Carolina; Roll: 1227; Page: 372C

2). Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of the Census. Official Register of the United States, Containing a List of the Officers and Employees in the Civil, Military, and Naval Service.  1889.

3). Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of the Census. Official Register of the United States, Containing a List of the Officers and Employees in the Civil, Military, and Naval Service.  1901.

4). Columbia, South Carolina, City Directory, 1903

5). 1900; Census Place: Darlington, Darlington, South Carolina; Page: 9

6). United States, Congress, House, Digest of Election Cases: Cases of Contested Elections in the House of Representatives, Forty-Seventh Congress, from 1880 to 1882, inclusive.  Mis. Doc. No. 35. Government Printing Office, Washington.  1883.