On February 3, 1870, the 15th Amendment prohibited states from disenfranchising voters “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Twenty-two days later, Mississippi politician and minister Hiram Rhodes Revels put that declaration into practice by taking the oath of office to become the first Black senator in United States history. Wendell Phillips, a civil rights activist, marked the occasion by nicknaming Revels “the 15th Amendment in flesh and blood.”
During the Civil War, which ended in 1865, Revels served as a chaplain and helped organize two regiments of the United States Colored Troops (USCT). Senators weren’t elected by popular vote until 1913, meaning that Revels, like all his colleagues, was elected by the state Legislature. The vote was 81-15. Revels’ term was short, as the seat he was appointed to had been vacant since the Civil War and was set to expire a year later on March 3, 1871, but his public service didn’t end there. He became Mississippi secretary of state in December 1872 and was praised throughout his career as a political moderate and gifted orator.
By the Numbers
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Black senators in U.S. history
14
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Years served by Robert Byrd of West Virginia, the most of any senator
51
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John Eaton’s age when he became the youngest senator in U.S. history
28
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Salary of a senator in 2025
$174,000
Did you know?
“Senator” comes from a Latin word meaning “old man.”
In what might be interpreted as an example of nominative determinism, the word “senator” comes from the Latin word senex, which usually means “old man”(though it can also mean “old woman” or “old people” in general). The word has been in use in English for more than 800 years. In fact, the average age of a U.S. senator was 65.3 years in 2023, and all but 63 senators in U.S. history have been men. Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia became the first woman to serve in the U.S. Senate in 1922, albeit only for a day, and Hattie Caraway of Arkansas was the first woman to become a senator via a normal election in 1931.
