Hiram Rhodes Revels
(September 27, 1827 – January 16, 1901)
He was the first African American to serve in the United States Senate when he took his office on February 25, 1870. He represented the state of Mississippi by election of the state legislature. He had come to replace Jefferson Davis, the previous Senator of Mississippi who resigned his seat to become the president of the Confederacy. Hiram was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina and was educated in Union County Quaker seminary in Indiana and at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois from 1856 to 1857. He was a preacher and a ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church 1845 who was known for his moderation and his high intelligence. "At times, I met with a great deal of opposition," he later recalled. "I was imprisoned in Missouri in 1854 for preaching the gospel to Negroes, though I was never subjected to violence." Newspapers praised him for his oratorical skills, and he used those skills to fight attempts to keep Washington D.C. schools segregated and to help black workers from being barred from working in the Washington D.C. Navy yard. Revels was Senator from 1870 to 1871, retiring to become the first president of Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College in Mississippi. As of 2008, Revels was one of only five African Americans ever to have served in the United States Senate.
He was the first African American to serve in the United States Senate when he took his office on February 25, 1870. He represented the state of Mississippi by election of the state legislature. He had come to replace Jefferson Davis, the previous Senator of Mississippi who resigned his seat to become the president of the Confederacy. Hiram was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina and was educated in Union County Quaker seminary in Indiana and at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois from 1856 to 1857. He was a preacher and a ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church 1845 who was known for his moderation and his high intelligence. "At times, I met with a great deal of opposition," he later recalled. "I was imprisoned in Missouri in 1854 for preaching the gospel to Negroes, though I was never subjected to violence." Newspapers praised him for his oratorical skills, and he used those skills to fight attempts to keep Washington D.C. schools segregated and to help black workers from being barred from working in the Washington D.C. Navy yard. Revels was Senator from 1870 to 1871, retiring to become the first president of Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College in Mississippi. As of 2008, Revels was one of only five African Americans ever to have served in the United States Senate.
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