Hiram Rhodes Revels (September 27, 1827 – January 16, 1901)

On this day in 1870 Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from
Natchez, Mississippi, was sworn into the U.S. Senate, becoming
the first African American ever to sit in Congress.

During the Civil War, Revels, a college-educated minister, helped
form African American army regiments for the Union cause,
started a school for freed men, and served as a chaplain for the
Union army. Posted to Mississippi, Revels remained in the
former Confederate state after the war and entered into
Reconstruction-era Southern politics.

Hiram Revels taking the oath of office.