John Mercer Langston Seated in Congress After Disputed Election

John Mercer Langston — the first Black American elected to public office in the U.S., first dean of Howard Law School, and U.S. Minister to Haiti — was seated in the U.S. House from Virginia in 1890 after a protracted legal fight over a stolen election. His life represented nearly every major Black institutional and political first of the 19th century.