Revels, Hiram Rhodes (1822-1901), was the first African American to serve in the United States Senate. He was a Republican senator from Mississippi from 1870 to 1871. He completed the unfinished term of Jefferson Davis, the former president of the Confederacy. In the Senate, Revels supported civil rights for blacks.
Revels was born free in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Sept. 1, 1822. He was educated at seminaries in Indiana and Ohio and attended Knox College in Illinois. In 1845, he became a minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Revels helped establish black churches and schools in the Midwest and the South. During the American Civil War (1861-1865), he recruited black soldiers for the Union Army. In 1866, he settled in Natchez, Mississippi. He became an alderman and later served as a state senator. After completing his term in the U.S. Senate, he was named president of Alcorn University (now Alcorn State University). Revels died on Jan. 16, 1901.
