This day in history-January 20th: Hiram R. Revels becomes first black senator

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Hiram R. Revels was born on September 27, 1827, in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He was a modest minister who became the first African-American United States Senator representing the state of Mississippi in 1870. After serving a year in the Senate, Revels resigned to accept the presidency of Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College, which is a historically black college in Mississippi and now known as Alcorn State University. While at Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College, Revels also served as a professor of philosophy, which allowed him to participate in the intellectual enrichment of African Americans—a cause for which he had fought while serving in the Senate. Revels died on January 16, 1901 in Aberdeen, Mississippi.