Reconstruction Era Biographies | Hiram Revels Biography

Born September 1822
Fayetteville, North Carolina

Died January 16, 1901
Aberdeen, Mississippi

Minister, educator, and U.S. senator

"I maintain that the past record of my race is a true index of the feelings which today animate them.… They aim not to elevate themselves by sacrificing one single interest of their white fellow-citizens. They ask but the rights which are theirs by God's universal law.…

A religious leader and educator, Hiram Revels traveled as a preacher and missionary throughout the Midwest and the upper South before the Civil War (1861–65). During the war, Revels served the Union army as a chaplain for African American soldiers. After settling in Mississippi, Revels became in 1870 the first African American to serve in the U.S. Senate. He was elected to complete an open term of two years that had been vacant since Jefferson...