Person · 1827–1901
Hiram Rhodes Revels
The first African American to serve in the United States Senate, seated in 1870 during Reconstruction.
A landmark figure of [[reconstruction-politics]].
A free-born minister and educator, Hiram Revels recruited Black regiments during the Civil War and entered Mississippi politics during Reconstruction. In 1870 the state legislature elected him to the U.S. Senate, to the very seat once held by Confederate president Jefferson Davis.
His swearing-in, over the objections of senators who invoked the Dred Scott decision, was a landmark of the Reconstruction promise. He later served as president of Alcorn University.