Black History Month: Hiram Revels
His full name was Hiram Rhodes Revels. He was a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, a college administrator and an United States Senator. Unlike many African-American men of his generation, he was born a free man in North Carolina. He moved to Ohio, where he was allowed to vote in elections before other African Americans were given the Constitutional right to do so. During the Civil War, Revels helped organize two regiments of the "United States Colored Troops" and served as their chaplain. He became the first African American to serve in Congress when he was elected to the United States Senate to represent Mississippi in 1870 and 1871 during the Reconstruction era.
Revels was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina on September 27, 1827. His parents were what were known as "free people of color", having both African and European ancestry. Revels was taught by a local African American woman for his early education. In 1838 he went to live with his older brother , Elias B. Revels, in Lincolnton, North Carolina. There he apprenticed as a barber in his brother's barber shop. After Elias Revels died in 1841, he took over the shop. Revels left North Carolina to attended the Union County Quaker Seminary in Indiana, and Darke County Seminary in Ohio. In 1845 Revels was ordained as a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He worked as a preacher and religious teacher throughout a number of states, including Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Tennessee, Missouri, and Kansas. His preaching to other African Americans was not always well received in some of those states and in 1854 he was imprisoned in Missouri for preaching the gospel to African Americans. Remarkably, according to Revels himself he was never subjected to violence. While in Ohio he was even permitted to vote in elections.
Revels pursued his religious studies at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois from 1855 to 1857. He became a minister in a Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore, Maryland, and he also served as a principal for a black high school. When war broke out in 1861, Revels served as a chaplain in the United States Army. He helped recruit and organize two Union regiments composed of African American solduers from Maryland and Missouri. He himself took part at the battle of Vicksburg in Mississippi.
When the war ended in 1865, Revels left the African Methodist Episcopal Church and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was assigned as a minister briefly to churches in Leavenworth, Kansas, and New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1866, he was appointed to be permanent pastor at a church in Natchez, Mississippi, where he settled with his wife and five daughters. He became an elder in the Mississippi District of the Methodist Church, and while he was there he founded schools for African American children.
During Reconstruction in the south, a number of African Americans were elected to serve in positions in which it would have been unthinkable for them to do so prior to the Union victory. Revels was elected alderman in Natchez in 1868. In 1869 he was elected to represent Adams County in the Mississippi State Senate. Previously Revels had never attended a political meeting and had never made a political speech. Local Republicans presumed him to be a supporter of their party because of his race. Party leaders considered him to be very able and well respected in the community.
In January 1870, Revels was selected to present the opening prayer in the Mississippi State Legislature. Congressman John Lynch described the prayer recited by Revels as "one of the most impressive and eloquent prayers that had ever been delivered in the [Mississippi] Senate Chamber". It elevated Revels' stature and made a profound impression on the other legislators. At the time, most state legislatures, including Mississippi, elected U.S. senators from the state. In 1870 Revels was elected by a vote of 81 to 15 in the Mississippi State Senate to finish the term of one of the state's two seats in the US Senate, which had been left vacant since the Civil War. Previously, the seat had been held by Albert G. Brown, who withdrew from the US Senate in 1861 when Mississippi seceded.
When Revels arrived in Washington, D.C., southern Democrats opposed having him seated him in the Senate. Two days of debate over the issue followed, with Senate galleries packed with spectators for this historic event. Democrats based their opposition on the 1857 Dred Scott Decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that people of African ancestry were not and could not be citizens. They argued that no African American had been a citizen before the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, and therefore Revels could not satisfy the Senate's requirement of nine years' prior citizenship.
Revels' supporters said that the Civil War, and the Reconstruction Amendments, had overturned Dred Scott. They said that the subordination of African-Americans was no longer part of the US constitutional regime. They said that it would be unconstitutional to bar Revels based on the pre-Civil War Constitution's racist citizenship rules. Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner said:
"The time has passed for argument. Nothing more need be said. For a long time it has been clear that colored persons must be senators. All men are created equal, says the great Declaration, and now a great act attests this verity. Today we make the Declaration a reality. The Declaration was only half established by Independence. The greatest duty remained behind. In assuring the equal rights of all we complete the work.”
On February 25, 1870, the Senate voted, on a party-line vote of 48 to 8, to seat Revels in the senate, with only Republicans voting in favor and only Democrats voting against. He became the first African American to be seated in the United States Senate. The entire gallery stood up as he was sworn in.
As a Senator, Revels called for compromise and moderation in effecting reconstruction. But he strongly supported racial equality and sought to reassure his fellow senators about the capability of African Americans. He gave his maiden speech to the Senate on March 16, 1870, in which he argued for the reinstatement of the black legislators of the Georgia General Assembly, who had been illegally ousted by white Democratic Party representatives. Revels served on both the Committee of Education and Labor and the Committee on the District of Columbia. Much of the Senate's attention focused on Reconstruction issues. While Radical Republicans called for continued punishment of ex-Confederates, Revels disappointed the radicals when he argued for amnesty and a restoration of full citizenship of former Confederates, provided that they swore an oath of loyalty to the United States.
Revels' term lasted one year, February 1870 to March 3, 1871. He spoke against an amendment proposed by Senator Allen G. Thurman (D-Ohio) to keep the schools of Washington, D.C., segregated. He nominated a young African American man to the United States Military Academy, but the young man was denied admission. Revels successfully took on the cause of black workers who had been barred by their color from working at the Washington Navy Yard. The northern press praised Revels for his ability as an orator. Revels supported bills for the investment in developing infrastructure in Mississippi, as well as the grant of lands and right of way to aid the construction of the New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad, and levees on the Mississippi river. He pressed for integration of schools in the District of Columbia.
In 1871, after his term as U.S. Senator expired, Revels was appointed as the first president of Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Alcorn State University), a college for African American students located in Claiborne County, Mississippi. He taught philosophy as well. In 1873, Revels took a leave of absence from Alcorn to serve as Mississippi's secretary of state ad interim. He was dismissed from Alcorn in 1874 when he campaigned against the reelection of Governor of Mississippi Adelbert Ames. He was reappointed in 1876 by the new Democratic administration and served until his retirement in 1882.
On November 6, 1875, Revels wrote a letter to Republican President Ulysses S. Grant, one that was widely reprinted in the press, in which he denounced Governor Ames as a "carpetbagger" (a pejorative term for northerners who exploited the south after the war) for manipulating the African-American vote for personal benefit, and for keeping alive wartime hatreds. He wrote to Grant:
"Since reconstruction, the masses of my people have been, as it were, enslaved in mind by unprincipled adventurers, who, caring nothing for country, were willing to stoop to anything no matter how infamous, to secure power to themselves, and perpetuate it. My people have been told by these schemers, when men have been placed on the ticket who were notoriously corrupt and dishonest, that they must vote for them; that the salvation of the party depended upon it; that the man who scratched a ticket was not a Republican. This is only one of the many means these unprincipled demagogues have devised to perpetuate the intellectual bondage of my people. The bitterness and hate created by the late civil strife has, in my opinion, been obliterated in this state, except perhaps in some localities, and would have long since been entirely obliterated, were it not for some unprincipled men who would keep alive the bitterness of the past, and inculcate a hatred between the races, in order that they may aggrandize themselves by office, and its emoluments, to control my people, the effect of which is to degrade them.
Hiram Revels died on January 16, 1901, while attending a church conference in Aberdeen, Mississippi. He was buried at the Hillcrest Cemetery in Holly Springs, Mississippi.
Revels was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina on September 27, 1827. His parents were what were known as "free people of color", having both African and European ancestry. Revels was taught by a local African American woman for his early education. In 1838 he went to live with his older brother , Elias B. Revels, in Lincolnton, North Carolina. There he apprenticed as a barber in his brother's barber shop. After Elias Revels died in 1841, he took over the shop. Revels left North Carolina to attended the Union County Quaker Seminary in Indiana, and Darke County Seminary in Ohio. In 1845 Revels was ordained as a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He worked as a preacher and religious teacher throughout a number of states, including Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Tennessee, Missouri, and Kansas. His preaching to other African Americans was not always well received in some of those states and in 1854 he was imprisoned in Missouri for preaching the gospel to African Americans. Remarkably, according to Revels himself he was never subjected to violence. While in Ohio he was even permitted to vote in elections.
Revels pursued his religious studies at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois from 1855 to 1857. He became a minister in a Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore, Maryland, and he also served as a principal for a black high school. When war broke out in 1861, Revels served as a chaplain in the United States Army. He helped recruit and organize two Union regiments composed of African American solduers from Maryland and Missouri. He himself took part at the battle of Vicksburg in Mississippi.
When the war ended in 1865, Revels left the African Methodist Episcopal Church and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was assigned as a minister briefly to churches in Leavenworth, Kansas, and New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1866, he was appointed to be permanent pastor at a church in Natchez, Mississippi, where he settled with his wife and five daughters. He became an elder in the Mississippi District of the Methodist Church, and while he was there he founded schools for African American children.
During Reconstruction in the south, a number of African Americans were elected to serve in positions in which it would have been unthinkable for them to do so prior to the Union victory. Revels was elected alderman in Natchez in 1868. In 1869 he was elected to represent Adams County in the Mississippi State Senate. Previously Revels had never attended a political meeting and had never made a political speech. Local Republicans presumed him to be a supporter of their party because of his race. Party leaders considered him to be very able and well respected in the community.
In January 1870, Revels was selected to present the opening prayer in the Mississippi State Legislature. Congressman John Lynch described the prayer recited by Revels as "one of the most impressive and eloquent prayers that had ever been delivered in the [Mississippi] Senate Chamber". It elevated Revels' stature and made a profound impression on the other legislators. At the time, most state legislatures, including Mississippi, elected U.S. senators from the state. In 1870 Revels was elected by a vote of 81 to 15 in the Mississippi State Senate to finish the term of one of the state's two seats in the US Senate, which had been left vacant since the Civil War. Previously, the seat had been held by Albert G. Brown, who withdrew from the US Senate in 1861 when Mississippi seceded.
When Revels arrived in Washington, D.C., southern Democrats opposed having him seated him in the Senate. Two days of debate over the issue followed, with Senate galleries packed with spectators for this historic event. Democrats based their opposition on the 1857 Dred Scott Decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that people of African ancestry were not and could not be citizens. They argued that no African American had been a citizen before the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, and therefore Revels could not satisfy the Senate's requirement of nine years' prior citizenship.
Revels' supporters said that the Civil War, and the Reconstruction Amendments, had overturned Dred Scott. They said that the subordination of African-Americans was no longer part of the US constitutional regime. They said that it would be unconstitutional to bar Revels based on the pre-Civil War Constitution's racist citizenship rules. Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner said:
"The time has passed for argument. Nothing more need be said. For a long time it has been clear that colored persons must be senators. All men are created equal, says the great Declaration, and now a great act attests this verity. Today we make the Declaration a reality. The Declaration was only half established by Independence. The greatest duty remained behind. In assuring the equal rights of all we complete the work.”
On February 25, 1870, the Senate voted, on a party-line vote of 48 to 8, to seat Revels in the senate, with only Republicans voting in favor and only Democrats voting against. He became the first African American to be seated in the United States Senate. The entire gallery stood up as he was sworn in.
As a Senator, Revels called for compromise and moderation in effecting reconstruction. But he strongly supported racial equality and sought to reassure his fellow senators about the capability of African Americans. He gave his maiden speech to the Senate on March 16, 1870, in which he argued for the reinstatement of the black legislators of the Georgia General Assembly, who had been illegally ousted by white Democratic Party representatives. Revels served on both the Committee of Education and Labor and the Committee on the District of Columbia. Much of the Senate's attention focused on Reconstruction issues. While Radical Republicans called for continued punishment of ex-Confederates, Revels disappointed the radicals when he argued for amnesty and a restoration of full citizenship of former Confederates, provided that they swore an oath of loyalty to the United States.
Revels' term lasted one year, February 1870 to March 3, 1871. He spoke against an amendment proposed by Senator Allen G. Thurman (D-Ohio) to keep the schools of Washington, D.C., segregated. He nominated a young African American man to the United States Military Academy, but the young man was denied admission. Revels successfully took on the cause of black workers who had been barred by their color from working at the Washington Navy Yard. The northern press praised Revels for his ability as an orator. Revels supported bills for the investment in developing infrastructure in Mississippi, as well as the grant of lands and right of way to aid the construction of the New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad, and levees on the Mississippi river. He pressed for integration of schools in the District of Columbia.
In 1871, after his term as U.S. Senator expired, Revels was appointed as the first president of Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Alcorn State University), a college for African American students located in Claiborne County, Mississippi. He taught philosophy as well. In 1873, Revels took a leave of absence from Alcorn to serve as Mississippi's secretary of state ad interim. He was dismissed from Alcorn in 1874 when he campaigned against the reelection of Governor of Mississippi Adelbert Ames. He was reappointed in 1876 by the new Democratic administration and served until his retirement in 1882.
On November 6, 1875, Revels wrote a letter to Republican President Ulysses S. Grant, one that was widely reprinted in the press, in which he denounced Governor Ames as a "carpetbagger" (a pejorative term for northerners who exploited the south after the war) for manipulating the African-American vote for personal benefit, and for keeping alive wartime hatreds. He wrote to Grant:
"Since reconstruction, the masses of my people have been, as it were, enslaved in mind by unprincipled adventurers, who, caring nothing for country, were willing to stoop to anything no matter how infamous, to secure power to themselves, and perpetuate it. My people have been told by these schemers, when men have been placed on the ticket who were notoriously corrupt and dishonest, that they must vote for them; that the salvation of the party depended upon it; that the man who scratched a ticket was not a Republican. This is only one of the many means these unprincipled demagogues have devised to perpetuate the intellectual bondage of my people. The bitterness and hate created by the late civil strife has, in my opinion, been obliterated in this state, except perhaps in some localities, and would have long since been entirely obliterated, were it not for some unprincipled men who would keep alive the bitterness of the past, and inculcate a hatred between the races, in order that they may aggrandize themselves by office, and its emoluments, to control my people, the effect of which is to degrade them.
Hiram Revels died on January 16, 1901, while attending a church conference in Aberdeen, Mississippi. He was buried at the Hillcrest Cemetery in Holly Springs, Mississippi.