Blanche Bruce

Blanche Kelso Bruce
United States Senator from Mississippi
In office March 4, 1875 – March 4, 1881
Preceded by	Henry R. Pease
Succeeded by	James Z. George
Personal details
Born	March 1, 1841(1841-03-01) Farmville, Virginia, U.S.
Died	March 17, 1898(1898-03-17) (aged 57) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Josephine Willson Bruce
Profession	politician, teacher, farmer

Blanche Kelso Bruce (March 1, 1841 – March 17, 1898) was a U.S. politician who represented Mississippi as a Republican in the U.S. Senate from 1875 to 1881 and was the first elected African-American senator to serve a full term. Hiram R. Revels, also of Mississippi, was the first to ever serve in the U.S. Congress, but did not serve a full term.

Biography

Bruce was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia near Farmville to Pettis Perkinson, a white Virginia plantation owner, and an African-American house slave named Polly Bruce. He was treated comparatively well by his father, who educated him together with his legitimate half-brother. When Blanche Bruce was young, he played with his half-brother. As Blanche Bruce was born enslaved, because of his mother's status, his father legally freed him and arranged for an apprenticeship so he could learn a trade.

Bruce's house at 909 M Street NW in Washington, D.C. was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1975

In 1850, Bruce moved to Missouri after becoming a printer's apprentice. After the Union Army rejected his application to fight in the Civil War, Bruce taught school and attended Oberlin College in Ohio for two years. Then he went to work as a steamboat porter on the Mississippi River. In 1864, he moved to Hannibal, Missouri, where he established a school for blacks.

During Reconstruction, Bruce became a wealthy landowner in the Mississippi Delta. He was appointed to the positions of Tallahatchie County registrar of voters and tax assessor before winning an election for sheriff in Bolivar County. He later was elected to other county positions, including tax collector and supervisor of education, while he also edited a local newspaper. In February 1874, Bruce was elected by the state legislature to the Senate as a Republican. On February 14, 1879, Bruce presided over the U.S. Senate becoming the first African-American (and the only former slave) to do so. Bruce served as the District of Columbia recorder of deeds in 1891–93, and again as register of the treasury until his death in 1898.

On June 24, 1878, Bruce married Josephine Beal Wilson (1853–February 15, 1923) of Cleveland, Ohio amid great publicity; the couple traveled to Europe for a four-month honeymoon. Their only child, Roscoe Conkling Bruce was born in 1879. He was named for New York Senator Roscoe Conkling, Bruce's mentor in the Senate. In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Blanche Bruce on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.

See also

• List of African-American firsts

Bibliography

• Graham, Lawrence Otis (2006). The Senator and the Socialite: The True Story of America's First Black Dynasty. New York: Harper Collins. ISBN 978-0060985134. 

External links

• Blanche Bruce at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Retrieved on 2009-03-26
• "Blanche Bruce". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6126453. Retrieved 2009-03-26. 
• Biography and Joe Kelso.Tripod
• Review of The Senator and the Socialite

United States Senate
Preceded by Henry R. Pease	United States Senator (Class 1) from Mississippi March 4, 1875 – March 4, 1881 Served alongside: James L. Alcorn and Lucius Q. C. Lamar	Succeeded by James Z. George