View source for Hiram R. Revels

{{short description|American politician (1827–1901)}}
{{for|the cricketer|Hiram Rhodes}}
{{Use American English|date = December 2019}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2019}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix    = [[The Reverend]]
| name                = Hiram R. Revels
| image               = Hiram Rhodes Revels Brady-Handy2 (cropped).jpg
| caption             = Revels, {{circa|1860–1875}}
| alt                 = Black-and-white portrait of Revels sitting and facing right
| office1             = Secretary of State of Mississippi
| termstart1          = December 30, 1872
| termend1            = September 1, 1873
| governor1           = [[Ridgely C. Powers]]
| predecessor1        = [[James D. Lynch]]
| successor1          = [[Hannibal C. Carter]]
| order1              = 19th
| jr/sr2              = United States Senator
| state2              = [[Mississippi]]
| term_start2         = February 25, 1870
| term_end2           = March 3, 1871
| predecessor2        = [[Albert G. Brown]]
| successor2          = [[James L. Alcorn]]
| state_senate3       = Mississippi State
| district3           = 4th
| term_start3         = January 11, 1870
| term_end3           = February 25, 1870
| predecessor3        =
| successor3          = [[Jeremiah M. P. Williams]]
| birth_name          = Hiram Rhodes Revels
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1827|9|27}}
| birth_place         = [[Fayetteville, North Carolina]], U.S.
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1901|1|16|1827|9|27}}
| death_place         = [[Aberdeen, Mississippi]], U.S.
| party               = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| spouse              = Phoebe Bass
| children            = 8, including [[Susie Revels Cayton]], and [[Ida Revels Redmond]]
| education           = {{plainlist|
*Beech Grove Quaker Seminary
*Darke County Seminary
*[[Knox College (Illinois)|Knox College]]}}
| allegiance          = {{plainlist|
*{{flag|United States|1863}} ([[Union (American Civil War)|Union]])}}
| branch              = {{Dodseal|Board|21}} [[Union Army]]
| serviceyears        = 1863–1865
| unit                = [[Chaplain Corps (United States Army)|Chaplain Corps]]
| battles             = [[American Civil War]]
}}
'''Hiram Rhodes Revels''' (September 27, 1827<ref group=note name="birth group=note">Different sources list his birth year as either 1827 or 1822.</ref> – January 16, 1901) was an American [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] politician, minister in the [[African Methodist Episcopal Church]], and college administrator. Born free in North Carolina, he later lived and worked in Ohio, where he voted before the Civil War. Elected by the Mississippi legislature to the [[United States Senate]] as a Republican to represent [[History of Mississippi#Reconstruction|Mississippi in 1870 and 1871]] during the [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction era]], he was the first [[African American]] to serve in either house of the [[U.S. Congress]].

During the [[American Civil War]], Revels had helped organize two regiments of the [[United States Colored Troops]] and served as a chaplain. After serving in the Senate, Revels was appointed as the first president of Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College (now [[Alcorn State University]]), a [[historically black college]]. He served from 1871 to 1873. Later in his life, he served again as a minister.

==Early life and education==
Revels was born free in 1827 in [[Fayetteville, North Carolina]], to [[free people of color]], with ancestors who had been free since before the [[American Revolution]].<ref>[http://freeafricanamericans.com Paul Heinegg, Introduction, ''Free African Americans in Virginia and North Carolina''], Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing, 1995–2005. Quote: James Revell of Cumberland County [NC] entrusted his executor with the task of making application to the legislature for his wife's freedom [WB C:21]....Another member of this family, Hiram Revels, first African American to be elected to the U.S. Senate, was born in Fayetteville, Cumberland County, North Carolina in 1822 [''Encyclopædia Britannica,'' Ready Reference & Index VIII:538]. Two books available online at this website, including supplementary material.</ref> His parents were of [[African Americans|African American]], [[European-American|European]], and [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] ancestry.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/revels-hiram-rhoades|title=Revels, Hiram Rhoades|date=January 1, 1994|website=NCpedia|access-date=February 16, 2021}}</ref> <!-- Please discuss on talk page before changing to Lumbee etc --> His mother was also specifically known to be of Scots descent. His father was a [[Baptist]] preacher.<ref name="HAAUSHoR"/>

Revels was a second cousin to [[Lewis Sheridan Leary]], one of the men who were killed taking part in [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]]'s [[John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry|raid on Harpers Ferry]] in 1859, and to North Carolina lawyer and politician [[John S. Leary]].<ref>Oates, John Alexander. ''The Story of Fayetteville and the Upper Cape Fear''. Dowd Press, 1950. p. 714 {{ISBN?}}</ref>

During his childhood, Revels's education came from a local black woman. In 1838, at age 11, he went to live with his older brother, Elias B. Revels, in [[Lincolnton, North Carolina]]. He was apprenticed as a barber in his brother's shop. Barbering was considered a respectable, steady trade for black Americans in this period. As men of all races used barbers, the trade provided black Americans an opportunity to establish networks with the white community. After Elias Revels died in 1841, his widow Mary transferred the shop to Hiram Revels before she remarried.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Johnson|first=George D.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OANpT_Bl1c8C&dq=hiram%20rhodes%20revels%20barbershop%20elias&pg=PA1|title=Profiles In Hue|date=2011|publisher=Xlibris Corporation|isbn=978-1-4568-5120-0|pages=27|language=en}}</ref>

Revels attended the Beech Grove Quaker Seminary, a school in [[Union County, Indiana]], founded by [[Society of Friends|Quakers]], and the [[Union Literary Institute]], also known as the Darke County Seminary despite being in [[Randolph County, Indiana]].<ref name="CongBio|R000166">[https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/R000166 Biographical Directory of the United States Congress]</ref>

In 1845, Revels was ordained as a minister in the [[African Methodist Episcopal Church]] (AME); he served as a preacher and religious teacher throughout the Midwest: in Indiana, [[Illinois]], Ohio, [[Tennessee]], [[Missouri]], and [[Kansas]].<ref name="CongBio|R000166"/> "At times, I met with a great deal of opposition," he later recalled. "I was imprisoned in Missouri in 1854 for preaching the gospel to Negroes, though I was never subjected to violence."<ref>Aaseng, Nathan. ''African-American Religious Leaders: A–Z of African Americans''. Infobase Publishing, May 14, 2014. pp. 189–191</ref> During these years, he voted in Ohio.

He studied religion from 1855 to 1857 at [[Knox College (Illinois)|Knox College]] in [[Galesburg, Illinois]]. He became a minister in a [[Methodist Episcopal Church]] in [[Baltimore]], [[Maryland]], where he also served as a principal of a black high school.<ref name="Robinson">{{usurped|[https://web.archive.org/web/20061024052436/http://www.robinsonlibrary.com/america/unitedstates/1865/biography/revels.htm "Hiram Rhodes Revels"]}}, Robinson Library, 2011, accessed October 17, 2014</ref>

During the [[American Civil War]], Revels served as a chaplain in the United States Army. After the Union authorized establishment of the [[United States Colored Troops]], he helped recruit and organize two black [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] regiments in Maryland and Missouri. He took part at the [[Battle of Vicksburg]] in [[Vicksburg, Mississippi|Vicksburg]], [[Mississippi]].<ref>[https://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/history/h_multi_sections_and_teasers/Photo_Exhibit_African_American_Senators.htm U.S. Senate: Art & History Home &gt; Photo Exhibit<!-- bot-generated title -->] at senate.gov</ref>

==Political career==
In 1865, Revels left the [[AME Church]], the first independent black denomination in the US, and joined the [[Methodist Episcopal Church]]. He was assigned briefly to churches in [[Leavenworth, Kansas]], and [[New Orleans|New Orleans, Louisiana]]. In 1866, he was called as a permanent pastor at a church in [[Natchez, Mississippi]], where he settled with his wife and five daughters. He became an elder in the Mississippi District of the Methodist Church,<ref name="Robinson"/> continued his ministerial work, and founded schools for black children.

During [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]], Revels was elected [[alderman]] in Natchez in 1868.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Hiram Rhodes Revels – Knox College History |url=http://www.knox.edu/library/special-collections-and-archives/college-archives/knox-college-history/hiram-rhodes-revels|access-date=2020-07-02|website=www.knox.edu|language=en-us}}</ref> In 1869 he was elected to represent [[Adams County, Mississippi|Adams County]] in the [[Mississippi State Senate]].

Congressman [[John R. Lynch]] later wrote of him in his book on Reconstruction:

<blockquote>Revels was comparatively a new man in the community. He had recently been stationed at Natchez as pastor in charge of the A.M.E. Church, and so far as known he had never voted, had never attended a political meeting, and of course, had never made a political speech. But he was a colored man, and presumed to be a Republican, and believed to be a man of ability and considerably above the average in point of intelligence; just the man, it was thought, the Rev. Noah Buchanan would be willing to vote for.<ref name="lynch">{{Gutenberg|bullet=none| no=16158 |author= John R. Lynch |name= The Facts of Reconstruction|chapter=Chapter III| url= http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16158/16158-h/16158-h.htm#CHAPTER_III| access-date=2012-11-01| quote=}}</ref></blockquote>

In January 1870, Revels presented the opening prayer in the state legislature. Lynch wrote of that occasion,

<blockquote>That prayer—one of the most impressive and eloquent prayers that had ever been delivered in the [Mississippi] Senate Chamber—made Revels a United States Senator. He made a profound impression upon all who heard him. It impressed those who heard it that Revels was not only a man of great natural ability but that he was also a man of superior attainments.<ref name="lynch"/></blockquote>

===Election to Senate===
[[File:Credentials for Senator Hiram Rhodes Revels of Mississippi, the first African American to serve in the Senate, January 25, 1870..png|thumb|upright|left|Letter dated January 25, 1870, from the Governor of the State of [[Mississippi]] and the Secretary of State of Mississippi that certified the election of Hiram Revels to the [[United States Senate]].]]
At the time, as in every state, the Mississippi legislature elected U.S. senators; they were not elected by popular vote until after ratification of the 17th Amendment in 1913.

In 1870, Revels was elected by a vote of 81 to 15 in the Mississippi legislature to finish the term of one of the state's two seats in the U.S. Senate, which had been left vacant since the Civil War. Previously, it had been held by [[Albert G. Brown]], who withdrew from the U.S. Senate in 1861 when Mississippi seceded.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=b000900 | title=Brown, Albert Gallatin – Biographical Information | publisher=U.S. Congress | access-date=July 25, 2012}}</ref>

When Revels arrived in Washington, D.C., [[Southern Democrats]] in office opposed seating him in the Senate. For the two days of debate, the Senate galleries were packed with spectators at this historic event.<ref name="NYTimes">[https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0225.html "The Colored Member Admitted to His Seat in the Senate"], ''New York Times'', February 25, 1870, accessed October 10, 2012</ref> The Democrats based their opposition on the 1857 [[Dred Scott v. Sandford|Dred Scott Decision]] by the [[U.S. Supreme Court]], which ruled that people of African ancestry were not and could not be citizens. They argued that no black man was a citizen before the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|14th Amendment]] was ratified in 1868, and thus Revels could not satisfy the requirement of the Senate for nine years' prior citizenship.<ref name="Senate"/>

Supporters of Revels made arguments ranging from relatively narrow and technical issues, to fundamental arguments about the meaning of the Civil War. Among the narrower arguments was that Revels was of primarily European ancestry (an "[[octoroon]]") and that the Dred Scott decision should be interpreted as applying only to those blacks who were of totally African ancestry. Supporters said that Revels had long been a citizen (as shown by his voting in Ohio) and that he had met the nine-year requirement before the Dred Scott decision changed the rules and held that blacks could not be citizens.<ref name="Riddle">Richard Primus (2006), [https://archive.today/20130216181435/http://hlr.rubystudio.com/issues/119/april06/Article_1957.php "The Riddle of Hiram Revels"], 119 ''Harvard Law Review'' 1680</ref>

The more fundamental argument by Revels's supporters was that the Civil War, and the Reconstruction amendments, had overturned ''Dred Scott''. Because of the war and the Amendments, they argued, the subordination of the black race was no longer part of the American constitutional regime and, therefore, it would be unconstitutional to bar Revels on the basis of the pre-Civil War Constitution's citizenship rules.<ref name="Riddle"/> One Republican Senator supporting Revels mocked opponents as still fighting the "last battle-field" of that war.<ref name="Riddle"/>

Senator [[Charles Sumner]] (R-Massachusetts) said, "The time has passed for argument. Nothing more need be said. For a long time it has been clear that colored persons must be senators."<ref name="Senate"/> Sumner, a Republican, later said, 
<blockquote>All men are created equal, says the great Declaration, and now a great act attests this verity. Today we make the Declaration a reality. ... The Declaration was only half established by Independence. The greatest duty remained behind. In assuring the equal rights of all we complete the work.<ref>''Congressional Globe'', Senate, 41st Cong., 2nd sess. (February 25, 1870): 1567.</ref></blockquote>

On February 25, 1870, Revels, on a party-line vote of [[41st United States Congress#Members|48 to 8]], with Republicans voting in favor and Democrats voting against, became the [[List of African-American United States Senators|first African American]] to be seated in the [[United States Senate]].<ref name="Senate">{{cite web | url=https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/First_African_American_Senator.htm | title=First African American Senator | publisher=U.S. Senate | access-date=July 25, 2012}}</ref> Everyone in the galleries stood to see him sworn in.<ref name="NYTimes" />

Sumner's Massachusetts colleague, [[Henry Wilson]], defended Revels's election,<ref>{{cite book |last=Myers |first=John L. |date=2009 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NewlAAAAQBAJ&q=Henry+Wilson+and+the+Era+of+Reconstruction+myers |title=Henry Wilson and the Era of Reconstruction |publisher=University Press of America, Inc. |location=Lanham, Maryland |page=129 |isbn=978-0-7618-4742-7}}</ref> and presented as evidence of its validity signatures from the clerks of the [[Mississippi House of Representatives]] and [[Mississippi State Senate]], as well as that of [[Adelbert Ames]], the military [[Governor of Mississippi]].<ref name="Myers 2009, p. 129">Myers 2009, p. 129</ref> Wilson argued that Revels's skin color was not a bar to Senate service, and connected the role of the Senate to Christianity's [[Golden Rule#Christianity|Golden Rule]] of doing to others as one would have done to oneself.<ref name="Myers 2009, p. 129"/>

===U.S. senator===
[[File:Senator H. R. Revels (Boston Public Library).jpg|thumb|right|Revels was the first Black American to serve in the United States Senate.]]

Revels advocated compromise and moderation. He vigorously supported racial equality and worked to reassure his fellow senators about the capability of African Americans. In his maiden speech to the Senate on March 16, 1870, he argued for the reinstatement of the black legislators of the [[Georgia General Assembly]], who had been [[Original 33|illegally ousted]] by white [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] representatives. He said, "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."<ref>Ploski 18.</ref>

He served on both the Committee of Education and Labor and the [[United States Senate Committee on the District of Columbia|Committee on the District of Columbia]]. (At the time, the Congress administered the District.) Much of the Senate's attention focused on Reconstruction issues. While [[Radical Republicans]] called for continued punishment of ex-Confederates, Revels argued for amnesty and a restoration of full citizenship, provided they swore an oath of loyalty to the United States.<ref name="HAAUSHoR">Revels, Hiram Rhodes. "History, Art & Archives," United States House of Representatives. [http://history.house.gov/People/Listing/R/REVELS,-Hiram-Rhodes-(R000166)/]</ref>
[[File:Revels1870.jpg|thumb|upright|Political cartoon: Revels (seated) replaces [[Jefferson Davis]] (left; dressed as [[Iago]] from [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Othello]]'') in US Senate. ''[[Harper's Weekly]]'' February 19, 1870. Davis had been a senator from Mississippi until 1861.]]

Revels's Senate term lasted a little over one year, from February 25, 1870, to March 3, 1871. He quietly and persistently, although for the most part unsuccessfully, worked for equality. He spoke against an amendment proposed by Senator [[Allen G. Thurman]] (D-Ohio) to keep the schools of Washington, D.C., segregated and argued for their [[racial integration|integration]].<ref name="Robinson"/> He nominated a young black man to the [[United States Military Academy]]; the youth was subsequently denied admission. Revels successfully championed the cause of black workers who had been barred by their color from working at the [[Washington Navy Yard]].<ref name="HAAUSHoR"/>

The Northern press praised Revels for his oratorical abilities. His conduct in the Senate, along with that of the other black Americans who had been seated in the House of Representatives, prompted a white Congressman, [[James G. Blaine]] (R-Maine), to write in his memoir, "The colored men who took their seats in both Senate and House were as a rule studious, earnest, ambitious men, whose public conduct would be honorable to any race."<ref>Blaine, ''Twenty Years in Congress''</ref> Revels supported bills to invest in developing infrastructure in Mississippi: to grant lands and right of way to aid the construction of the [[New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad]] ([[41st United States Congress|41st Congress]] 2nd Session S. 712), and [[levee]]s on the Mississippi River (41st Congress 3rd Session S. 1136).<ref name="Senate"/>

==College president==
Revels accepted in 1871, after his term as U.S. Senator expired, appointment as the first president of Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College (now [[Alcorn State University]]), a [[historically black college]] located in [[Claiborne County, Mississippi]]. He taught [[philosophy]] as well. In 1873, Revels took a leave of absence from Alcorn to serve as [[Secretary of State of Mississippi|Mississippi's secretary of state]] ad interim. He was dismissed from Alcorn in 1874 when he campaigned against the reelection of [[List of Governors of Mississippi|Governor of Mississippi]] [[Adelbert Ames]]. He was reappointed in 1876 by the new Democratic administration and served until his retirement in 1882.<ref name="HAAUSHoR"/>

On November 6, 1875, Revels wrote a letter to fellow Republican and [[President of the United States|President]] [[Ulysses S. Grant]] that was widely reprinted. Revels denounced Ames and the [[carpetbaggers]] for manipulating the black vote for personal benefit, and for keeping alive wartime hatreds:<ref>full text in [[James Wilford Garner]]. ''Reconstruction in Mississippi'' (1901) pp. 399–400.</ref>

<blockquote>Since reconstruction, the masses of my people have been, as it were, enslaved in mind by unprincipled adventurers, who, caring nothing for country, were willing to stoop to anything no matter how infamous, to secure power to themselves, and perpetuate it. ... . My people have been told by these schemers, when men have been placed on the ticket who were notoriously corrupt and dishonest, that they must vote for them; that the salvation of the party depended upon it; that the man who scratched a ticket was not a Republican. This is only one of the many means these unprincipled demagogues have devised to perpetuate the intellectual bondage of my people. ... The bitterness and hate created by the late civil strife has, in my opinion, been obliterated in this state, except perhaps in some localities, and would have long since been entirely obliterated, were it not for some unprincipled men who would keep alive the bitterness of the past, and inculcate a hatred between the races, in order that they may aggrandize themselves by office, and its emoluments, to control my people, the effect of which is to degrade them.</blockquote>

Revels remained active as a Methodist Episcopal minister in [[Holly Springs, Mississippi]] and became an elder in the Upper Mississippi District.<ref name="Robinson"/> For a time, he served as editor of the ''[[Southwestern Christian Advocate]],'' the newspaper of the Methodist Church. He taught [[theology]] at Shaw College (now [[Rust College]]), a [[historically black college]] founded in 1866 in Holly Springs. Hiram Revels died on January 16, 1901, while attending a church conference in [[Aberdeen, Mississippi]]. He was buried at the [[Hillcrest Cemetery]] in Holly Springs, Mississippi.

[[File:Grave of Hiram Revels, Hillcrest Cemetery.jpg|thumb|upright|Grave of Hiram Revels in Holly Springs]]

==Legacy==
Revels's daughter, [[Susie Revels Cayton]], edited ''[[The Seattle Republican]]'' in [[Seattle|Seattle, Washington]]. Among his grandsons were [[Horace R. Cayton Jr.]], co-author of ''[[Black Metropolis]]'', and [[Revels Cayton]], a labor leader.<ref>[[Eric Foner|Foner, Eric]]. ''Freedom's Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders during Reconstruction''. 1996. Revised. {{ISBN|0-8071-2082-0}}. p. 181.</ref> In 2002, scholar [[Molefi Kete Asante]] listed Hiram Rhodes Revels as one of the [[100 Greatest African Americans]].<ref>Asante, Molefi Kete (2002). ''100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia.'' Amherst, New York. Prometheus Books. {{ISBN|1-57392-963-8}}.</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography}}
* [[List of African-American United States senators]]
* [[List of African-American United States Senate candidates]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Additional reading==
{{refbegin}}
* {{citation
|title=Hiram Revels Related to Men in John Brown's Army
|first1=Jean
|last1=Libby
|first2=Hannah
|last2=Geffert
|first3=Jimica Akinloye
|last3=Kenyatta
|date=March 3, 2007
|publisher=alliesforfreedom.org}}
*Borome, Joseph A. "The Autobiography of Hiram Rhodes Revels Together with Some Letters by and about Him," ''Midwest Journal'', 5 (Winter 1952–1953), pp.&nbsp;79–92.
*[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16158/16158-h/16158-h.htm#CHAPTER_XI John R. Lynch ''The Facts of Reconstruction'' (1913)], Online at Project Gutenberg – Memoir by Mississippi Congressman (a freedman) who served during [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]]
* [[Eric Foner|Foner, Eric]]. ''Freedom's Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders during Reconstruction''. 1996. Revised. {{ISBN|0-8071-2082-0}}.
* Gravely, William B., "Hiram Revels Protests Racial Separation in the Methodist Episcopal Church (1876)," ''Methodist History'', 8 (1970), pp.&nbsp;13–20.
* Hamilton, Brian, "The Monuments We Never Built," Edge Effects, August 22, 2017 http://edgeeffects.net/hiram-revels
* 0Harris, William C., ''The Day of the Carpetbagger: Republican Reconstruction in Mississippi'', [[Louisiana State University Press]], 1979
* [[James Haskins|Haskins, James]], ''Distinguished African American Political and Governmental Leaders,'' Oryx Press. 1999. pp: 216–218.
* Hildebrand, Reginald F., ''The Times Were Strange and Stirring: Methodist Preachers and the Crisis of Emancipation,'' [[Duke University Press]], 1995
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090208124305/http://statelibrary.dcr.state.nc.us/nc/bio/afro/revels.htm State Library of North Carolina]
* [http://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/MS/clergy.html Clergy Politicians in Mississippi]
* [https://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/history/h_multi_sections_and_teasers/Photo_Exhibit_African_American_Senators.htm Biographical sketch] at the [[U.S. Senate]] website
* [http://blackhistory.harpweek.com/7Illustrations/Reconstruction/HRRevels.htm Portrait and biography], ''[[Harper's Weekly]]'', February 19, 1870, p.&nbsp;116
* [https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0225.html "The Colored Member Admitted to His Seat in the Senate"], ''[[New York Times]]'', February 25, 1870 
* {{cite web| url=http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/1871/Hiram_Revels_pioneered_southern_Black_politics | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20030506162754/http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/1871/Hiram_Revels_pioneered_southern_Black_politics | archive-date= May 6, 2003| title= Hiram Revels pioneered southern Black politics| work= African American Registry | publisher= Media Business Solutions | access-date=November 1, 2012}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Hiram Revels}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{CongBio|R000166}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-par|us-sen}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Albert G. Brown]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of United States Senators from Mississippi|United States Senator (Class 2) from Mississippi]]|years=1870–1871|alongside=[[Adelbert Ames]]}}
{{s-aft|after=[[James L. Alcorn]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{USSenMS}}
{{Secretaries of State of Mississippi}}
{{African American topics}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Revels, Hiram R.}}
[[Category:1827 births]]
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[[Category:19th-century American Methodist ministers]]
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[[Category:Politicians from Baltimore]]
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