Hiram Rhodes Revels

Hiram Rhodes Revels (September 27, 1827 January 16, 1901) was a Republican Senator from Mississippi and the first African American Senator.

Life and career

Revels was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He attended Beech Grove Quaker Seminary, Darke County Seminary, and Knox College. He worked as a barber and served in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

During the Civil War, he helped create two regiments of African American troops in Maryland, which served in Mississippi. After the war he founded a school in Missouri and served as a minister at churches in Kansas, Kentucky, and Louisiana.

He settled in Natchez, Mississippi, where he won progressively higher political offices. He served in the U.S. Senate from February 23, 1870 until March 3, 1871.

After his term he served as President of Alcorn University and served as editor of the Southwestern Christian Advocate from 1876 until his retirement in 1882. He then taught theology at Shaw University. He died from a stroke in Aberdeen, Mississippi.

External links

• Hiram Rhodes Revels biography via Biographical Directory of the United States Congress