Bruce, Blanche Kelso (1841-1898), became the first African American to serve a full term in the United States Senate. He served as a Republican senator from Mississippi from 1875 to 1881. Hiram Revels, the nation’s first African American senator, had completed an unfinished term in 1870 and 1871. In the Senate, Bruce took special interest in civil rights for American Indians, African Americans, and Chinese immigrants.
Bruce, whose mother was a slave, was born near Farmville, Virginia, on March 1, 1841. He spent his childhood in slavery and was educated by plantation tutors. Shortly after the American Civil War began in 1861, Bruce escaped to Kansas, a free state. He founded a school for African Americans in Lawrence, Kansas, and another in Hannibal, Missouri. Before becoming a senator, Bruce held various local offices in Mississippi. He was register of the U.S. Treasury from 1881 to 1885 and in 1897 to 1898. Bruce died on March 17, 1898.
