Posted on February 25, 2022
This is an update of my post published on February 25, 2011:
On this date in 1870, Hiram Rhodes Revels became the first Black person to serve in the U.S. Congress, representing Mississippi as its Senator for two years during Reconstruction.
You may wonder why he served only two years, when Senate seats are held for six years. Well, Revels was sworn in to serve out the unexpired term of Jefferson Davis, who had quit the Senate when Mississippi and other Southern states broke away from the United States. Davis ended up being the president of the so-called Confederate States of America.
Amazing, but true...
To this day, only ten other African Americans, besides for Revels, have ever served in the U.S. Senate! Can you name any of them?* (Hint: below are two of them.)
By the way, Revels was never a slave. He was born free in North Carolina, and he became a minister who went to seminary and college. He preached in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Tennessee, Missouri, Kansas, and Maryland, and he helped set up schools for Black children. He was a chaplain in the Union army and helped raise two Black regiments during the Civil War, and he took part in the battle of Vicksburg in Mississippi.
* The other ten Black U.S. Senators were/are:
Blanche Bruce – R – Mississippi 1875-1881 (former slave)
Edward Brooke III – R – Massachusetts 1967-1979
Carol Braun – D – Illinois 1993-1999
Barack Obama – D – Illinois 2005-2008
Roland Burris – D – Illinois 2009-2010
Tim Scott - D - South Carolina 2013-current
William "Mo" Cowan - D - Massachusetts 2013
During the 5-1/2 months that Mo Cowan served alongside Tim Scott, this was the FIRST TIME EVER than there was more than one Black Senator at the same time!
Corey Booker - D - New Jersey 2013-current
Kamala Harris - D - California 2017-2021
Raphael Warnock - D - Georgia 2021-current
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Barack Obama and Kamala Harris are surely the two most famous Black Senators in U.S. history, since they went on to become the first Black President and Vice-President, respectively. |
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