The "Slavery Through USA History: Part II - U.S. Senator Hiram Rhodes Revels!"

It was an ordinary day.  Reading the story of Hiram Rhodes Revels, the first African-American member of the U.S. Congress.  It was 150 years ago that Democratic senators attempted to block his appointment to the Senate by Mississippi Republicans.  Oh, how times have changed!  

U.S. Senator Hiram Rhodes Revels

At the time of his appoint- ment, members of the state legislature selected senators instead of by popular vote.  Mr. Revels had served as an alderman in Natchez, Mississippi after tours of duty as a minister, teacher and chaplain for the Union Army.  As expected, he was met by protests from the minority Democrats.  The New York Times reported that the galleries were packed when quarreling erupted in the chamber as to whether to allow a black senator to be admitted into the body.  Racist language could be heard amongst the outcries of the Democrats.  It seems that many argued that he wasn't a U.S. citizen long enough to be in the Senate.  Democratic senators argued that the Civil Rights Act of 1866 had given the Mississippi alderman only four years of citizenship, even though he had been born a free man in 1827.  Republicans disagreed and said that the Senate ought to vote Mr. Revels in and begin a new age of representation from African Americans.  On February 25, the vote was taken and Hiram Rhodes Revels became the first African-American member of the United States Congress!  The vote wasn't even close at 48 yays to 8 nays.  But, the name calling he had to endure during the two days of protest would have been more than enough to make one throw up their hands and claim defeat, but not Mr. Revels.  He took his oath, took his seat and the Senate adjourned for the weekend.  A welcome respite.  Two Mississippi Senate seats had been filled that session with the other going to Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy during the Civil War!  Harper's Weekly ran a political cartoon that featured Davis as Iago, the traitorous villain of Shakespeare's Othello, looking on at Revels taking nthis place in the chamber: "For that I do suspect the lusty moor hath leap'd into my seat: the thought whereof doth like a poisonous mineral gnaw my inwards."  

Harper's Weekly cartoon.

But, Senator Revels only served for about a year, with his term ending on February 8, 1871.  He did get to sit on a Committee that heard arguments over a clause that would have desegregated Washington D.C. schools.  He addressed the committee arguing against an amendment to strike the clause, saying that if the Nation encourages this prejudice against the colored race, can they have any hope that Heaven will smile upon them?  He spoke of the oppression that African Americans all over the country had to withstand in housing, church, transportation and education.  He pleaded his fellow Senators to consider how desegregated schools could help empower African Americans "without one hair upon the head of any white man being harmed."  He lost the vote!  It wasn't until 1954 that segregation was outlawed.  Hiram Rhodes Revels was the first of a small group of southern black congressmen during the Reconstruction Era.  A few years after Revels served, Blanche Bruce, another African American, was elected to the Mississippi Senate, but Mississippi hasn't elected an African American U.S. Senator since.  Only ten have served in the history of the country as of today.  Will it ever change?  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.