 Born in Kalkaska,
Illinois, Menard was the first African American elected to the U.S. Congress who was denied his seat by that body.
During the Civil War, he served as a clerk in the U.S. Department of the Interior. In 1865, he moved to New Orleans, where
he became active in the Republican Party, serving as inspector of customs and later as a commissioner of streets. He also
published a newspaper, The Free South, later named The Radical Standard.
Elected to Congress from Louisiana in
1868 to fill an unfinished term, Menard failed to overcome an election challenge by the loser and Congress refused to seat
either man. In 1871, he moved to Florida, where he was again active in the Republican Party and published the Island City
News in Jacksonville. In 1880, Menard was a clerk in the Treasury Department in DC. His wife, Elizabeth
M., was born in 1846 in Jamaica as was her mother, but her father was born in England. The couple had at
least three children: Alice (b. 1863 in Canada), Willis (b. 1866 in Jamaica), and Marie (b. 1871 in St. Thomas).
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