Blanche K. Bruce

Formerly enslaved Mississippian who in 1875 became the first Black senator to serve a full term.

Overview

Bruce escaped slavery in Virginia, taught school, and rose through Mississippi Reconstruction politics to the Senate, serving a complete six-year term from 1875 to 1881. He presided over a Senate session, the first Black American to do so, chaired the Committee on Mississippi Levees, pressed for desegregating army units and federal treatment of Native Americans, and investigated fraud in federal elections in Mississippi. Rebuffed by his legislature, he remained in Washington as Register of the Treasury, where his signature appeared on currency, the first Black American's to do so.