Who is Hiram Revels?

• A. First African-American elected to either House of Congress
• B. First African-American elected to the Senate
• C. First African-American to the House
• D. First African-American to be Secretary of State

Answer: (A)

The question tests identifying the first African American to sit in the United States Congress. Hiram Rhodes Revels, a minister and educator from Mississippi, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1870 to fill Jefferson Davis’s seat and took office in February 1870. This made him the first African American to serve in Congress, before any African American served in the House later that same year. That historic milestone is why the best description is that he was the first African-American elected to either chamber of Congress. He did not become Secretary of State, and the House’s first Black member (who came later) did not precede Revels.