Hiram Rhodes Revels (1827 – 1901)

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.