Revels
February 25, 1870 - Hiram Rhodes Revels is the first African American to be seated in Congress after being elected Senator from Mississippi.
Revels was elected to a seat whose term was due to expire in March 1871.
Southern Democrats opposed seating him in the Senate. They based their opposition on the 1857 "Dred Scott" by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that people of African ancestry were not and could not be citizens. The Constitution required that a person be a citizen for at least nine years before being elected to the Senate. Since African Americans were only made citizens by constitutional amendment in 1868, Revels could not satisfy the requirement.
Radical Republicans and Northen Democrats argued that Revels was of primarily European ancestry (he was only one-eighth African) and that the "Dred Scott" decision applyied only to those who were of 100 percent African. They pointed out that Revels had been a citizen of Ohio for at least nine years before the "Dred Scott" decision changed the rules. But most importantly, the Civil War and subsequent constitutional amendments had overturned "Dred Scott", and it would be unconstitutional to bar Revels.
For two days, debate raged in the Senate. On February 25, 1870, Revels was seated on a party-line vote of 48 to 8. When he was sworn in, everyone in the galleries stood in respect.
As a Senator, Revels advocated compromise and moderation. He vigorously supported racial equality, served on the Committee of Education and Labor and the Committee on the District of Columbia (where he argued for integration of public schools), and argued for amnesty and a restoration of full citizenship to ex-Confederate officials and soldiers (provided they swore an oath of loyalty to the United States). He also championed the cause of black workers who had been barred by their color from working at the Washington Navy Yard, and won their reinstatement.