Pierre Caliste Landry was born into slavery in 1841 on the Prevost sugar cane plantation in Ascension Parish, the son of Marcelite Prevost, a slave and cook, and Roseman Landry, a white laborer. He was likely purchased as the property of Louis Amedée Bringier, who was born on and had inherited the Hermitage Plantation in Ascension Parish (other Bringier plantations were located in Street James Parish).
Landry was educated in the plantation"s primary and technical schools.
He is best remembered for being elected in 1868 as mayor of Donaldsonville, making him the first African American to be elected mayor in the United States. The plantation had one of the largest slave populations devoted to sugar cultivation in the state. Landry was sold at auction, at age 13, to the Bringier family, which owned 35,000 acres on various plantations.
He was also tutored by the ministers West.D. Goodman and A.L. Atkinson.
By the end of the Civil War, Landry had married. He moved with his family to Donaldsonville, which became known for having the third-largest black community in the state.
In the postwar years, many freedmen were migrating from rural areas to towns in order to establish their own communities, trades, and businesses independent of white supervision. They also found more safety in their own communities.
He served as an elected judge, superintendent of schools, tax collector, president of the police jury, parish school board member, postmaster, and as justice of the peace.
He became influential in the Republican Party, establishing the Black Republicans faction and winning election to the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1872 by a large margin. His bill was passed to establish New Orleans University, which became the third Black private college in Louisiana. In 1874, Landry was elected to the Louisiana State Senate, serving until 1880.
The Reconstruction legislature authorized public education for the first time and established a funding mechanism.
lieutenant also supported a variety of public welfare institutions. In 1878 Landry was called as minister of Saint Peter"s Church.
He became more involved in church affairs, and was elected presiding elder of the Baton Rouge District in 1881. Four years later, he was elected presiding elder of the Shreveport District, where he had moved.
He regularly attended the annual conferences of the church, and in 1891 was elected to its highest position, as a Presiding Elder of the South New Orleans District.
