1870 – First Black U.S. Senator Hiram Revels Concludes Term

On June 3, 1870, Hiram Rhodes Revels concluded his historic service as the first African American U.S. Senator. Representing Mississippi during Reconstruction, Revels had stepped into a seat previously held by Jefferson Davis, the former president of the Confederacy. His tenure was brief—just over a year—but deeply symbolic. He advocated for racial reconciliation and equal rights, including Black education and integration in the armed forces. Though the Reconstruction era would soon face violent backlash, Revels’ presence in the Senate was a milestone of progress and possibility. June 3 serves as a reminder of early Black political leadership in the post-Civil War South—and how short-lived but powerful those gains were before the rise of Jim Crow laws.