First Black U.S. congressman’s North Carolina roots –

North Carolina native Hiram Revels was the first Black person to serve in the U.S. Senate. But his legacy expands beyond his time in the Senate, and his roles in ministry and education solidify his influence.

Kelli Cardenas Walsh, an associate professor of history at Fayetteville State University, said Revels was born in Fayetteville on Sept. 27, 1827.

Though no one has confirmed the identity of his parents, it is known that his family was never enslaved, Walsh said.

When Revels was 10 or 11, he moved to Lincolnton, N.C. to apprentice for his older brother, who was a barber, she said. She said being a barber was the first career path Revels took in his life.

After leaving Lincolnton as a young adult, Revels pursued theology. Walsh said he did most of his work through the African Methodist Episcopal Church and traveled through Kansas, Indiana and Maryland to minister.

Walsh said Revels also worked as a chaplain in the Union army during the Civil War. She said he worked in Vicksburg, Miss., when the Union overtook the area on July 4, 1863 — a turning point in the war. 

Following the end of the war, the seat in Congress that belonged to the former president of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis, was open. The Republican Party insisted that one of the vacant seats be filled by a Black member of the party, and the Mississippi state legislature appointed Revels to the U.S. Senate to fill Davis’ vacant seat on Feb. 25, 1870.

“I just think that’s beautiful irony, considering we’re just coming out of the war and the person who was the president of the Confederacy who can no longer hold office is replaced by an African-American gentleman,” Walsh said

Walsh said Revels only served as a senator for one year, as he finished the term started by Davis.