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History and Government—Congressional Biographies—MississippiREVELS, Hiram Rhodes
(1827—1901)
Senate Years of Service:
1870-1871
Party:
Republican
REVELS, Hiram Rhodes, a Senator from Mississippi; born in Fayetteville, Cumberland County, N.C., on September 27, 1827; attended various schools, seminaries, and Knox College, Galesburg, Ill.; barber; ordained a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church at Baltimore, Md., in 1845; carried on religious work in Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri; accepted a pastorate in Baltimore, Md., in 1860; at the outbreak of the Civil War assisted in recruiting two regiments of African American troops in Maryland; served in Vicksburg, Miss., as chaplain of a Negro regiment and organized African American churches in that State; established a school for freedmen in St. Louis, Mo., in 1863; settled in Natchez, Miss., in 1866; elected alderman in 1868; member, State senate 1870; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate; presented his credentials upon the readmission of Mississippi to representation on February 23, 1870; took the oath of office on February 25, 1870, after the Senate resolved a challenge to his credentials, and served from February 23, 1870 until March 3, 1871; first African American Senator; secretary of State ad interim of Mississippi in 1873; president of the Alcorn Agricultural College, Rodney, Miss., 1876-1882; moved to Holly Springs, Marshall County, Miss., and continued his religious work; died in Aberdeen, Miss., January 16, 1901; interment in Hill Crest Cemetery, Holly Springs, Miss.
Bibliography
American National Biography
; Dictionary of American Biography
; Libby, Billy W. “Senator Hiram Revels of Mississippi Takes His Seat, January-February, 1870.” Journal of Mississippi History
37 (November 1975): 381-94; Thompson, Julius. Hiram R. Revels, 1827-1901: A Biography
. New York: Arno Press, 1982.
Borome, Joseph, ed. “The Autobiography of Hiram Rhodes Revels Together with Some Letters By and About Him.” Midwest Journal
5 (Winter 1952-1953): 79-92.
Christopher, Maurine. Black Americans in Congress
. 1971. Rev. and expanded ed. New York: T.Y. Crowell, 1976. Originally published as America’s Black Congressmen
.
Gibbs, Warmoth T. “Hiram R. Revels and His Times.” Quarterly Review of Higher Education Among Negroes
8 (January 1940): 25-37; (April 1940): 64-91.
Lawson, Elizabeth. The Gentleman from Mississippi: Our First Negro Congressman, Hiram R. Revels
. New York: n.p., 1960.
Libby, Billy W. “Senator Hiram Revels of Mississippi Takes His Seat, January-February, 1870.” Journal of Mississippi History
37 (November 1975): 381-94.
Meyer, Howard N. “Two Gentlemen from Mississippi.” Chicago Jewish Forum
26 (Fall 1967): 28-36.
Sewell, George A. “Hiram Rhodes Revels: Another Evaluation.”Negro History Bulletin
38 (December 1974-January 1975): 336-39.
Singer, Donald L. “For Whites Only: The Seating of Hiram Revels in the United States Senate.” Negro History Bulletin
35 (March 1972): 60-63.
Smith, Samuel Denny. The Negro in Congress, 1870-1901.
1940. Reprint. Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press, 1966.
___. “The Negro in the United States Senate.” In Essays in Southern History Presented to Joseph Gregoire de Roulhac Hamilton
, edited by Fletcher Melvin Green, pp. 49-66. James Sprunt Studies in History and Political Science, vol. 31. 1949. Reprint. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1976.
Thompson, Julius Eric. Hiram R. Revels, 1827-1901: A Biography
. New York: Arno Press, 1982.
Wheeler, Gerald E. “Hiram R. Revels, Negro Educator and Statesman.” Master’s thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 1949.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
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