1868-1880        United States Senate

Hiram Rhodes Revels
(1822-1901)
Party: Republican
State: Mississippi
Term: 41st Congress (1870-1871)


Blanche K. Bruce
(1841-1881)
Party: Republican
State: Mississippi
Term: 44th-46th Congresses (1875-1881)


1868-1880        United States House of Representatives

John Willis Menard*
(1838-1893)
Party: Republican
District: Louisiana
Term: 40th Congress (1868)
*Elected to office, but not seated


Joseph H. Rainey
(1832-1887)
Party: Republican
State: South Carolina
Term: 41st-45th Congresses (1870-1879)


Jefferson F. Long
(1836-1901)
Party: Republican
State: Georgia
Term: 41st Congress (1870-1871)


Robert C. DeLarge
(1842-1874)
Party: Republican
State: South Carolina
Term: 42nd Congress (1871-1873)


Robert B. Elliott
(1842-1884)
Party: Republican
State: South Carolina
Term: 42nd-43rd Congresses (1871-1874)


Benjamin S. Turner
(1825-1894)
Party: Republican
State: Alabama
Term: 42nd Congress (1871-1873)


Josiah T. Walls
(1842-1905)
Party: Republican       
State: Florida
Term: 42nd, 43rd and 44th Congresses
(1871-1873, 1873-1875 and 1875-1876)


Richard Harvey Cain
(1825-1887)
Party: Republican
State: South Carolina
Term: 43rd and 45th Congresses
(1873-1875 and 1877-1879)


John R. Lynch
(1847-1939)
Party: Republican
State: Mississippi
Term: 43rd-44th and 47th Congresses
(1873-1877 and 1882-1883)


James T. Rapier
(1837-1883)
Party: Republican
State: Alabama
Term: 43rd Congress (1873-1875)


Alonzo J. Ransier
(1834-1882)
Party: Republican
State: South Carolina
Term: 43rd Congress (1873-1875)


Jeremiah Haralson
(1846-1916)
Party: Republican
State: Alabama
Term: 44th Congress (1846-1916)


John Adams Hyman
(1840-1891)
Party: Republican
State: North Carolina
Term: 44th Congress (1875-1877)


Charles E. Nash
(1844-1913)
Party: Republican
State: Louisiana
Term: 44th Congress (1875-1877)


James E. O’Hara
(1844-1905)
Party: Republican
State: North Carolina
Term: 48th-49th Congresses (1883-1887)


Robert Smalls
(1839-1915)
Party: Republican
State: South Carolina
Term: 44th-45th, 47th and 48th-49th Congresses
(1875-1879, 1882-1883 and 1884-1887)


Henry P. Cheatham
(1857-1935)
Party: Republican
State: North Carolina
Term: 51st-52nd Congresses (1889-1893)



1880-1890        United States House of Representatives

John M. Langston
(1829-1897)
Party: Republican
State: Virginia
Term: 51st Congress (1890-1891)


Thomas E. Miller
(1849-1936)
Party: Republican
State: South Carolina
Term: 51st Congress (1890-1891)


George W. Murray
(1853-1926)
Party: Republican
State: South Carolina
Term: 53rd-54th Congresses
(1983-1895 and 1896-1897)


1890-1900        United States House of Representatives

George H. White
(1852-1918)
Party: Republican
State: North Carolina
Term: 55th-58th Congresses (1897-1901)


1920-1930        United States House of Representatives

Oscar S. DePriest
(1871-1951)
Party: Republican
State: Illinois
Term: 71st-73rd Congresses (1929-1935)


1960-1970         United State Senate

Edward W. Brooke
(1919- )
Party: Republican
State: Massachusetts
Term: 90th-95th
Congresses (1967-1979)


1990-2000        United States House of Representatives

Gary A. Franks
(1953- )
Party: Republican
State: Connecticut
Term: 102nd-104th
Congresses (1991-1997)

J.C. Watts, Jr.
(1957-)
Party: Republican
State: Oklahoma
Term: 104th-107th
Congresses (1995-2003)

2010-                 United States House of Representatives
Copyright 2010. All content and rights are reserved by The Frederick Douglass Foundation, Inc.

  • First Black American to
    Mississippi began his
    service in the Senate on
    February 25, 1870

  • Representative elected
    to Congress Joseph
    Rainey of South Carolina
    began his service in the
    House of
    Representatives on
    December 12, 1870.

  • First African-American
    Representative to Floor
    Jefferson Long of
    Georgia spoke on the
    House Floor in 1871.

  • First African-American
    Representative to
    preside over a House
    session Joseph Rainey
    of South Carolina
    presided over the
    House in 1874.

  • First African American to
    chair a congressional
    committee Blanche
    Bruce of Mississippi
    became chairman of
    Senate Select
    Committee on the
    Mississippi River in
    1877.

  • First African American
    popularly elected to the
    Senate Edward Brooke
    of Massachusetts was
    elected to the Senate in
    1966.
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