Hiram Revels Becomes First Black U.S. Senator

Hiram Revels of Mississippi was seated in the U.S. Senate on February 25, 1870, becoming the first African American senator, filling the seat once held by Jefferson Davis. Born free in North Carolina, Revels was a Methodist minister and Union Army recruiter. His seating was contested by Democrats who questioned his citizenship. His election, by the Mississippi state legislature, represented the apex of Black political participation in the state.