Background
Waller was born to enslaved parents in New Madrid County, Missouri.
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John Waller
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He was the grandfather of Negro World editor, poet, composer, and lyricist Andy Razaf. At the end of the American Civil War, he moved with his family to a farm in Tama County, Iowa. Waller"s formal education, begun in 1863, ended with his graduation from high school in Toledo, Iowa.
Waller entered politics while living in Iowa.
While living in Cedar Rapids and working as a barber, he was permitted to use the law library of Judge North.M. Hubbard. Waller passed the bar in October of 1877.
On May 1st of the next year, he moved to Topeka, Kansas, in response to "Pap" Singleton"s call for African-Americans to colonize the state. On March 10, 1882, Waller founded the Western Recorder.
The newspaper continued publication until 1885 in Lawrence, Kansas.
In 1888, Waller became the first black presidential elector, supporting the Republican ticket. He was charged with the responsibility to transport the results of the Kansan vote to Washington, District of Columbia, that year. After unsuccessfully campaigning to become the state auditor Kansas, Waller was appointed American consul in Madagascar in 1891.
When his service as consul ended, the island"s queen granted him a concession of 150,000 acres (610 km2) on the southern end of the island, lush with mahogany, ebony, rosewood, and rubber trees.
Waller developed the land into thriving production. After France entered into a treaty with the Malagasy government, the French Resident objected to the granting of the concession without French permission.
(The French may have believed that Waller"s success in developing his concession infringed upon their efforts to colonize the island) French authorities arrested Waller and accused him of having been a spy who provided military information to the Hovas in their attempts to maintain their country"s monarchy and independence. Waller was court-martialed and sentenced to twenty years" imprisonment.
Congressional resolutions led American president Grover Cleveland to demand that Waller be set free, and he was released after ten months" incarceration in Marseille.
However, the French did not return his concession, which they declared invalid and confiscated. Captain in company C, 23 Kansas Infantry in Spanish American War from Blacks Kansans in Spanish-American War
Waller died in New York in 1907.
