Early Black Political Leaders

Blanche Kelso Bruce, US Senator, Photo credit: Public Domain

Hiran Rhodes, US Senator, Photo credit: public domain

For Black History Month this year, we wanted to highlight a few black heroes that were early political leaders.

The first black US Senator was Hiram Rhodes Revels. Revels (1827-1901) attended a seminary in Indiana before becoming a preacher in 1845. He was jailed in 1854 for preaching to slaves in St. Louis, even though he “sedulously refrained from doing anything that would incite slaves to run away from their masters.” During the Civil War, he helped in recruiting two black regiments and also served as a chaplain. Revels was in the Senate for a partial term, from February 1870 to March 1871, and spent the remainder of his life serving various religious and educational offices.

Blanche Kelso Bruce was the first black US Senator to serve a full term in office. Bruce (1841-1898) was born into slavery but fled to Kansas during the Civil War where he attempted to enlist. His enlistment was refused and he taught school for a time before moving to Mississippi where he was elected to various local political offices in the early 1870s. Bruce took his seat in the US Senate in 1875 and served until 1881, in this role he championed the rights of black war veterans and Native Americans. He was also the first black person to preside over a Senate session on February 14, 1879. Bruce spent the remainder of his life after the Senate in various other political offices.

Joseph Hayne Rainey was the first black person to serve in the US House of Representatives. Rainey (1832-1887) was born into slavery but his father was able to purchase freedom for his family. Rainey worked as a barber before being pressed into service by the Confederacy during the Civil War; in 1862 he escaped to Bermuda where he remained until the end of the war. He was a delegate to the 1868 South Carolina state constitutional convention. Rainey was elected to the US House of Representatives where he served from 1870-1879. He also has the distinction of being the first black person to preside over the House of Representatives in 1874.