February 25, 1870: The 1st Black U.S. Senator

Hiram Reynolds

February 25, 1870: Hiram Revels is seated by the U.S. Senate, becoming the 1st black person so honored.

Hiram Rhodes Revels was born on September 27, 1827 in Fayetteville, North Carolina, to a free family of color. He became a barber like his brother, and then a minister like their father. He was the principal of an all-black high school in Baltimore, and a chaplain in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

In 1866, he was assigned as the pastor to a church in Natchez, Mississippi. In 1868, as part of the Reconstruction of the South, he was elected an Alderman for Natchez. In 1869, he was elected to the State Senate. Until the 17th Amendment was ratified in 1913, U.S. Senators were elected by each State's legislature. In 1870, with Mississippi having been readmitted to the Union, its Senate seats vacant since its secession in 1861, Revels was elected to one of those seats by an 81-15 vote.

When he arrived in Washington to take his seat, the Democratic Senators argued that, because of the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision, he was not a U.S. citizen, and could not be seated. The Republican Senators pointed out that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution had ruled that all people born in America were citizens, rendering Dred Scott v. Sandford null and void. On February 25, 1870, the Senators voted on whether to seat him. There were 48 Republicans, and they all voted Yes. There were 8 Democrats, and they all voted No. He was seated.

On December 12, 1870, Joseph H. Rainey, a Republican from South Carolina, became the 1st black person sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives. Previously a member of the State Senate, he led the fight for legislation to stop the original Ku Klux Klan -- so today's Republican Party would never have accepted him. He was re-elected until his defeat in 1878, and lived until 1887.

Joseph Rainey

Revels' term expired on March 4, 1871, and he did not seek another. He accepted an appointment to be President of what is now Alcorn State University in Mississippi, and served there for 11 years. He died on January 16, 1901, at the age of 83. By that point, the other black man who had served in the U.S. Senate, Blanche Bruce of Mississippi (1875-81), and all 20 black men who had served in the U.S. House of Representatives, were out of office.

Not until 1928 would another black Congressman be elected: Oscar De Priest of Illinois. Not until 1966 would a black person be elected to the Senate without Reconstruction: Ed Brooke of Massachusetts. Since then, 38 of the 50 States have elected at least one black person to Congress; and Massachusetts, Illinois, South Carolina, New Jersey, California and Georgia have each had at least one black Senator.

In the 117th Congress, serving in 2021 and 2022, there are 56 Representatives and 3 Senators who are African-American; 40 Representatives and 6 Senators of Hispanic descent; 16 Representatives and 2 Senators of Asian or Pacific Islander descent; 7 Representatives (but no Senators) of Middle Eastern descent; and 5 Representatives (but no Senators) of Native American descent.

Meaning that 124 members of the House, or 28 percent, are nonwhite; and 11 out of 100 Senators are. Counting also those members who, not counting those already named, are female, or Jewish, or gay, and we still have 46 percent of the House and 61 percent of the Senate that are straight white Christian men. We do not yet have a Congress that "looks like America."

And, of course, Barack Obama was the 1st black President, while Kamala Harris, the current Vice President, is both the 1st black and the 1st Asian (Indian) person to hold that office, and both previously served in the Senate.

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February 25, 1870 was a Friday. Baseball was in the off-season. What have become the other major North American sports either didn't exist or barely did. So there were no scores on this historic day.