Paving the Way for a Black President

The election of Barack Obama as the president of the United States marked an historic turn of American history. It came almost 150 years after the American Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation. After slaves were emancipated and granted citizenship rights, freedmen had gained political representation in the Southern United States for the first time. Although it took 14 decades after blacks were all freed to have a black president, it did not take that long for the first black man to be elected to national office John Willis Menard of Louisiana holds that honor, being chosen by voters of that state to the House of Representative in 1868. His opponent contested his election, and the opposition prevented him from being seated in Congress. Menard does hold the distinction of being the first black to speak from the floor of Congress. Within three years, there were seven pioneering African-Americans who made their way to Washington D. C. as the first Black senator and congressmen and were allowed to serve. All of them were from Southern states. The north would not produce a Black congressmen until the 20th century. Outnumbered by the old white members of European descent who had control for generations, these Black men made their mark in national government. The Republican Rule during Reconstruction allowed them to be elected, and that chance ended in 1877 with the end of Carpetbagger era. Three of the original seven men who were the first Blacks to serve in Washington were former slaves. The other four were born "free men of color." They paved the way for every black politician in the country to follow, laying the groundwork for the first Black, Barack Obama, to be elected as the President of the United States. Senator Hiram Revels, born free before the Civil War and Rep. Joseph Rainey, a former slave, were the first to arrive in Washington in the year 1870 in the second year of the the 41st Congress. Revels came first, having been elected as the first black senator, representing the state of Mississippi.'' Rainey was seated in December of 1870. 41st Congress The arrival of Senator Hiram Revels of Mississippi and Representative Joseph Rainey of South Carolina on Capitol Hill in 1870 ranks among the great paradoxes in American history; just a decade earlier, these African Americans' congressional seats were held by southern slave owners. Moreover, the U.S. Capitol, the center of legislative government, conceived by its creators as the "Temple of Liberty"-had been constructed with the help of enslaved laborers. 42nd Congress The following year, Revels and Rainey were joined by five black members of the House of Representatives who were seated in the 42nd Congress: Benjamin S. Turner of Alabama; Josiah T. Walls of Florida; and Robert Brown Elliot and Robert Carlos DeLarge of South Carolina, and Jefferson Long of Georgia. Long's seat was disputed and was upseated on the first day of the session on March 4, 1871. Three of the seven men were from South Carolina: Rainey, Elliott and DeLarge.