Revels, Hiram Rhodes, c. 1827-1901

<p>Hiram Rhodes Revels (September 27, 1827 – January 16, 1901) was a Republican U.S. Senator, minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and a college administrator. Born free in North Carolina, he later lived and worked in Ohio, where he voted before the Civil War. He became the first African American to serve in the U.S. Congress when he was appointed to the United States Senate as a Republican to represent Mississippi in 1870 and 1871 during the Reconstruction era.</p>

<p>During the American Civil War, Revels had helped organize two regiments of the United States Colored Troops and served as a chaplain. After serving in the Senate, Revels was appointed as the first president of Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Alcorn State University) and served from 1871 to 1873 and 1876 to 1882. Later in his life, he served again as a minister.</p>

<p>A freeman his entire life, Hiram Rhodes Revels was the first African American to serve in the U.S. Congress. With his moderate political orientation and oratorical skills honed from years as a preacher, Revels filled a vacant seat in the United States Senate in 1870. Just before the Senate agreed to admit a black man to its ranks on February 25, Republican Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts sized up the importance of the moment: “All men are created equal, says the great Declaration,” Sumner roared, “and now a great act attests this verity. Today we make the Declaration a reality…. The Declaration was only half established by Independence. The greatest duty remained behind. In assuring the equal rights of all we complete the work.”</p>

<p>Hiram Rhodes Revels was born to free parents in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on September 27, 1827. His father worked as a Baptist preacher, and his mother was of Scottish descent. He claimed his ancestors “as far back as my knowledge extends, were free,” and, in addition to his Scottish background, he was rumored to be of mixed African and Croatan Indian lineage. In an era when educating black children was illegal in North Carolina, Revels attended a school taught by a free black woman and worked a few years as a barber. In 1844, he moved north to complete his education. Revels attended the Beech Grove Quaker Seminary in Liberty, Indiana, and the Darke County Seminary for black students, in Ohio. In 1845, Revels was ordained in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. His first pastorate was likely in Richmond, Indiana, where he was elected an elder to the AME Indiana Conference in 1849. In the early 1850s, Revels married Phoebe A. Bass, a free black woman from Ohio, and they had six daughters.</p>

<p>Hiram Rhoades Revels, first black U.S. senator, Methodist minister, and educator, was born in Fayetteville of free black parents who were of mixed Croatan (Lumbee) Indian and African American blood. At an early age he moved to Lincolnton, where for several years he served as a barber. In 1844 he entered a Quaker seminary at Liberty, Ind., for two years, where he acquired little more than an elementary education. After briefly attending a theological school in Drake County, Ohio, he completed his formal education at Knox College in Illinois. Revels was ordained a minister in the African Methodist church while in school and subsequently served religious missions to blacks in Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee.</p>

<p>When the Civil War began Revels moved to Baltimore and, in addition to his usual role as a minister, took charge of a high school for black adults. He also assisted in organizing two black regiments for service in the Union army. In 1863 he moved to St. Louis, where he established a school for freedmen and aided in the recruitment of another black regiment for Federal service. Motivated by a desire to bring religious instruction to the wretched members of his race who followed Ulysses S. Grant's army into the lower Mississippi Valley, Revels went to Mississippi in 1864 and organized several black churches and schools. Although he left the state for a brief period to do missionary work in Kentucky and Kansas, he settled permanently in Mississippi in 1866, choosing Natchez as his place of residence. In 1866 he transferred his church membership from the African Methodist church to the Methodist Episcopal Church, North, but remained a minister.</p>

<p>Revels's entry into Reconstruction politics occurred in 1868, when the military commander tapped him to serve on the Natchez City Council. Virtually by accident, as a compromise candidate, he secured the local Republican nomination to the state senate in 1869, which was tantamount to election in the Natchez District. His prayer opening the legislative session of 1870 made such a profound impression upon the members that they selected him to fill the short term in the U.S. Senate (reputedly the unexpired term of Jefferson Davis).</p>

REVELS, Hiram Rhodes, a Senator from Mississippi; born in Fayetteville, Cumberland County, N.C., on September 27, 1827; attended Beech Grove Quaker Seminary in Liberty, Ind., Darke County Seminary in Ohio, and Knox College, Galesburg, Ill.; barber; ordained a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church at Baltimore, Md., in 1845; carried on religious work in Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri; accepted a pastorate in Baltimore, Md., in 1860; at the outbreak of the Civil War assisted in recruiting two regiments of African American troops in Maryland; served in Vicksburg, Miss., as chaplain of a Negro regiment, and organized African American churches in that State; established a school for freedmen in St. Louis, Mo., in 1863; after the war, served in churches in Kansas, Kentucky and Louisiana before settling in Natchez, Miss., in 1866; elected alderman in 1868; member, Mississippi state senate 1870; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate; presented his credentials upon the readmission of Mississippi to representation on February 23, 1870; took the oath of office on February 25, 1870, after the Senate resolved a challenge to his credentials, and served from February 23, 1870, until March 3, 1871; first African American Senator; secretary of state ad interim of Mississippi in 1873; president of Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College (formerly Oakland College, now Alcorn State University), Rodney, Miss., 1871-1874, 1876-1882; moved to Holly Springs, Marshall County, Miss., and continued his religious work; editor, Southwestern Christian Advocate, official newspaper of A.M.E. Church 1876-1882; in retirement after 1882, taught theology at Shaw University, Holly Springs, Miss.; died from a paralytic stroke in Aberdeen, Miss., January 16, 1901; interment in Hill Crest Cemetery, Holly Springs, Miss.