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Dec 4, 2009
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History and GovernmentCongressional BiographiesMississippi

REVELS, 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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