| Birth Date: | 15 December 1850 |
| Birth Place: | Alabama |
| Death Place: | Jackson, Mississippi |
| Occupation: | American politician, lawyer, minister and teacher |
Louis Kossuth Atwood, also documented as L. K. Attwood[1] [2] (December 15, 1850 - January 8, 1929) was a lawyer, bank founder and president, minister, teacher and state legislator in Mississippi.
He was born December 15, 1850, in Alabama to slave parents.[3] When he was 18 months old, he was sold at a slave auction; his mother bought him and took him away to Ohio.
Altwood obtained both his primary and secondary education at Ripley, Ohio.[3] He was an 1874 Bachelor of Arts graduate of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.[3] Altwood was also ordained as a Presbyterian minister while at university.[3]
After graduating he moved to Bolton, Mississippi, where he started working as a school teacher and then later in commerce.[3]
He studied law and was admitted to The Mississippi Bar in 1879 before starting up a law practice in Bolton.[4] [3]
He founded the fraternal insurance company the Sons and Daughters of Jacob of America in 1883 which he ran until his death.[3]
Altwood served two terms in the Mississippi House of Representatives from: 1880 to 1881 and from 1884 to 1885 representing Hinds County as a Republican.[5] [6] [7] He was also appointed a United States internal revenue collector, until 1899, and was a delegate to several Republican National Conventions.[3] [8]
He helped found Southern Bank in Jackson and served as its president.[5] In 1908 he was president of the Mississippi Negro Bankers Association.[9]
He died in Jackson, Mississippi on January 8, 1929 (as reported by his grave) or January 7 as reported in the newspaper obituary that described him as "one of Mississippi's greatest negro citizens".He was survived by his widow of 49 years Maggie Beatrice Welborne; one son, Dr. Mollison Atwood; and three daughters: Hertycena Dickson, Ollive McKissack and Mary Millsaps.