Black History: Hiram Revels

Hiram Rhodes Revels was the first African American to serve in the U.S. Congress. Read more about him below.

Hiram Revels was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on September 27, 1827. Unlike many African Americans in the south at the time, Revels was a part of a free family. Revels started off as a barber with his brother before moving to North Carolina to study at seminaries in Indiana and Ohio. In 1845, he became a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Revels organized two black regiments for the union army during the Civil War. After the war, Revels and his family moved to Natchez, Mississippi. In 1868, Revels served briefly in the Mississippi State Senate. Then in 1870, he was selected by the state congress to fill a vacant seat in the United States Senate. After much debate regarding whether or not he was eligible, Revels ultimately became the first African American to serve in the United States Senate. He served for one year before resigning to accept the presidency of Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College in Claiborne County, Mississippi. Hiram Revels died on January 16, 1901 in Aberdeen, Mississippi.