Also American
Struggle & ResistanceAchievement & Excellence

January 1870

Zoom out
Achievement · politics
First Black men seated in the US House of Representatives

Joseph Rainey of South Carolina became the first Black man seated in the House of Representatives in December 1870, joined by several others during Reconstruction including Jefferson Long and Robert Brown Elliott. This cohort represented the first substantial Black presence in Congress.

Events

  1. 1870
    First Black men seated in the US House of Representatives

    Joseph Rainey of South Carolina became the first Black man seated in the House of Representatives in December 1870, joined by several others during Reconstruction including Jefferson Long and Robert Brown Elliott. This cohort represented the first substantial Black presence in Congress.

  2. 1870
    First Buffalo Soldiers Awarded Medal of Honor for Indian Wars Service

    Between 1870 and 1898, eighteen Buffalo Soldiers of the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantry receive the Medal of Honor for extraordinary valor in frontier service. Recipients include Sergeant Emanuel Stance (1870), the first Black Medal of Honor recipient since the Civil War, honored for repelling raids and rescuing captives near Fort McKavett, Texas.