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History and Government—Congressional Biographies—VirginiaJohn Mercer LANGSTON
(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
”John Mercer Langston” in Black Americans in
Congress, 1870-2007. Prepared under the direction of the
Committee on House Adminstration by the Office of History &
Preservation, U. S. House of Representatives. Washington:
Government Printing Office, 2008; Langston, John Mercer. From
Virginia Plantation to National Capitol. 1894. Reprint, New
York: Arno Press, 1969.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
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