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History and Government—Congressional Biographies—VirginiaLANGSTON, John Mercer
(1829—1897)
LANGSTON, John Mercer, a Representative from Virginia; born in Louisa, Louisa County, Va., December 14, 1829; attended the common schools in Ohio; was graduated from the literary department of Oberlin College in 1849 and from the theological department in 1852; studied law in Elyria, Ohio; was admitted to the bar in 1854 and commenced practice in Oberlin, Ohio; took an active part in recruiting black troops during the Civil War, especially for the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Massachusetts and Fifth Ohio Regiments; member of the council of Oberlin 1865-1867; member of the city board of education in 1867 and 1868; appointed inspector general of the Bureau of Freedmen, Refugees, and Abandoned Lands in 1868; moved to Washington, D.C., and practiced law; dean of the law department of Howard University 1869-1876; appointed and commissioned by President Grant a member of the Board of Health of the District of Columbia in 1871; appointed by President Hayes Minister Resident and consul general to Haiti and Chargé d’Affaires to Santo Domingo; elected vice president and acting president of Howard University in 1872; delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1876; returned to Virginia, having been elected president of the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, Petersburg, Va., in 1885; delegate to the Republican State convention in 1890; successfully contested as a Republican the election of Edward C. Venable to the Fifty-first Congress and served from September 23, 1890, to March 3, 1891; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1890 to the Fifty-second Congress; died in Washington, D.C., on November 15, 1897; interment in Woodlawn Cemetery.
Bibliography
Cheek, William F. “Forgotten Prophet: The Life of John Mercer Langston.” Ph.D. diss., University of Virginia, 1961; Langston, John Mercer. From Virginia Plantation to National Capitol
. 1894. Reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1969.
Blodgett, Geoffrey. “John Mercer Langston and the Case of Edmonia Lewis: Oberlin, 1862.” Journal of Negro History
53 (July 1968): 201-18.
Bromberg, Alan B. “John Mercer Langston: Black Congressman From The Old Dominion.” Virginia Cavalcade
30 (Autumn 1980): 60-67.
Cheek, William F. “Culture and Kinship: John Mercer Langston in Cincinnati, 1840-1843.” Queen City Heritage
47 (Spring 1989): 3-22.
———. “Forgotten Prophet: The Life of John Mercer Langston.” Ph.D. diss., University of Virginia, 1961.
———. “A Negro Runs For Congress: John Mercer Langston and the Virginia Campaign of 1888.” Journal of Negro History
52 (January 1967): 14-34.
Cheek, William F., and Aimee Lee Cheek. John Mercer Langston and the Fight for Black Freedom, 1829-65.
Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1989.
Foner, Philip S. “ The First Publicly-Elected Black Official in the United States Reports His Election.” Negro History Bulletin
37 (April/May 1974): 237.
”John Mercer Langston” in Black Americans in Congress, 1870-1989
. Prepared under the direction of the Commission on the Bicentenary by the Office of the Historian, U.S. House of Representatives. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1991.
Langston, John Mercer. Emancipation and Enfranchisement.
Washington: N.p., 1875.
———. Freedom and Citizenship: Selected Lectures and Addresses of Hon. John Mercer Langston, LL.D., U.S. Minister Resident at Haiti.
Reprint, Miami, Fla.: Mnemosyne Publishing Co., Inc., 1969.
———. From the Virginia Plantation to the National Capitol.
1894. Reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1969.
———. The Other Phase of Reconstruction: Speech of Hon. John Mercer Langston, delivered at Congregational Tabernacle, Jersey City, New Jersey, April 17, 1877.
Washington: Gibson Brothers, printers, 1877.
Langston National Monument, Historical and Emancipation Association of Virginia.
Souvenir Journal of the 35th National Emancipation Celebration. Alexandria, Va.: Magnus L. Robinson, 1898.
Levstik, Frank R. “Langston, John Mercer.” In Dictionary of American Negro Biography
, edited by Rayford W. Logan and Michael R. Winston,
pp. 382-84. New York: Norton and Co., 1982.
Patterson, Zella J. Black, and Lynette L. Wert. Langston University: A History.
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1979.
U.S. Congress. House. Contested Election Case of John M. Langston vs. E.C. Venable.
51st Cong. 1st Sess. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1889.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
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