Hiram Rhoades Revels (
September 27,
1827 –
January 16,
1901) was the first
African American to serve in the
U.S. Senate representing
Mississippi.
Revels was born free in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He was taught by a black woman for his early education then attended a Quaker seminary in Indiana and a black seminary in Ohio. He went to Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois and became an African Methodist Episcopal Church minister in 1845.
Revels taught and preached in the old Northwest Territory states. Then he organized black Union regiments in Maryland and Missouri. He was affiliated with the Freedman's Bureau, which may have led to his move to Mississippi. There he served as a minister and on the city council of Natchez. In 1870, Revels was elected to the United States Senate, becoming the first African American senator, filling the seat which had been vacated by former Confederate President Jefferson Davis. He served for one year.
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