Hiram Revels

Mississippi minister who in 1870 became the first Black United States senator.

Overview

Born free in North Carolina, Revels was a Methodist minister, educator of Black communities across the Midwest and South, and Union army chaplain before Mississippi's legislature elected him in 1870 to finish the term once held by Jefferson Davis. Democrats challenged his seating on grounds of citizenship and prior allegiance, but the Senate seated him, and he served with dignity for a year, pressing for restoring political rights to former Confederates while advocating schools and civil rights for freedpeople. He later became president of Alcorn University, the first Black senator also being a founder of Black higher education.