Fights for Civil Rights

Race matters remained at the forefront of Downing’s interests. In addition to his early interest in rescuing fugitive slaves, he had a continuing interest in the education of African American children, as demonstrated in 1847 when he became a member of the first board of trustees of the New York Society for the Promotion of Colored Children. Later on, in Rhode Island, he led a successful fight from 1857 to 1866 to abolish separate publicly supported schools in the state. For twelve years he urged the legislature to allow children to attend the school of their choice, regardless of their race.

In 1866 Downing and Frederick Douglass petitioned President Andrew Johnson to initiate a liberal Reconstruction policy, particularly in the South. The men, joined by fellow abolitionist John Sella Martin, petitioned Senator Charles Sumner to support the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteeing, among other rights, due process and equal protection under the law.

At times Downing’s views on politics and race were at odds with those of other race men. For example, he questioned Frederick Douglass’s manual labor school proposal because he found it racially exclusive. Downing fought for the rights of all who were oppressed, not just African Americans. He was also persistent and passionate in his opposition to the American Colonization Society’s interest in having blacks migrate to Liberia. When black abolitionist Henry Highland Garnet began efforts to emigrate blacks and formed a black African Civilization Society for that purpose, Downing fought vehemently to stop the plan. He took his fight to the conventions held in 1859, 1860, and 1864, often resorting to personal attacks and threats of violence to those who took up Garnet’s efforts.

Downing was a key player in the successful fight to abolish segregated cars on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. His efforts also led to admission of blacks to the U.S. Senate gallery and to passage of a public accommodations law in Washington. D.C., in 1873.

Downing’s interest in labor issues led to his becoming an organizer of the Colored National Labor Union in 1889. He chaired the first convention and was the union’s first vice president. Around this time he began to loosen his ties to the Republican party, in which he had been a longtime member, and in 1883 Downing broke with the party and supported northern Democrats.

A financially secure businessman, Downing retired in the early 1880s and devoted his time to his other interests—his dogs and a collection of memorabilia. He attended Union Congregational Church and established a close friendship with its pastor, Mahlon Van Horne who, with Downing’s financial backing, was elected to the Newport School Committee and later became the first black legislator in the state’s General Assembly. Downing was a member of the equal rights movement in Rhode Island and a member of several antislavery societies. He was also an organizer of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows and for several years served as grand master. He was a Royal Arch Mason as well.

On November 24, 1841, Downing married Serena Leanora de Grasse, the daughter of George de Grasse, a prosperous landowner from Calcutta, India. He had courted her when she spent summer vacations at the home of political abolitionist Gerrit Smith, whose daughter was Serena’s classmate at Clinton Seminary in Clinton, New York.

Downing, a tall, commanding figure with light complexion, had a lingering illness and then died at his Bellevue Avenue home in Newport, Rhode Island, on July 21, 1903. His three sons, three daughters, brother Peter W., and nephew Henry F. Downing survived him. His funeral services were held on July 24 at Emmanuel Church in Newport. He was remembered as a racial optimist, one who worked diligently for the cause of liberty and justice.