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	(1841-03-01)March 1, 1841 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 non-white 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.

Life and politics

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.^[1]

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 registrator of voters and tax assessor before winning an election for sheriff in Bolivar County.^[2] 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, becoming the second African American to serve in the upper house of Congress. On February 14, 1879, Bruce presided over the U.S. Senate becoming the first African-American (and the only former slave) to do so.^[1] In 1880, James Z. George was elected to succeed Bruce.

At the 1880 Republican National Convention in Chicago, Bruce became the first African-American to win any votes at a major party's nominating convention, winning 8 votes for vice president. The presidential nominee that year was James A. Garfield, who won election. In 1881, Bruce was appointed by President Garfield to be the Register of the Treasury, making Bruce the first African-American whose signature was represented on U.S. paper currency.^[3] Bruce served as the District of Columbia recorder of deeds in 1890–93 and earned a salary of $30,000 per year.^[4] He was appointed as Register of the Treasury a second time in 1897 by President William McKinley and served 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.^[5]

References

Bibliography

• Graham, Lawrence Otis (2006). The Senator and the Socialite: The True Story of America's First Black Dynasty. New York: Harper Collins. ISBN 978-0-06-098513-4. 

External links

• Blanche Bruce at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Retrieved on 2009-03-26
• "Blanche Bruce". Find a Grave. Retrieved 2009-03-26. 
• Biography and Joe Kelso.Tripod
• Review of The Senator and the Socialite

United States Senate
Preceded by Henry R. Pease	U.S. 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

v t e United States Senators from Mississippi Class 1 Leake Holmes Ellis Reed Ellis Black Trotter T. Hickman Williams Henderson Speight Davis McRae S. Adams Davis Ames Pease Bruce George Money J. Williams Stephens Bilbo Stennis Lott Wicker Class 2 T. Hill Williams Reed R. Adams Poindexter Walker Chalmers Foote Brooke Brown Revels Alcorn Lamar Walthall McLaurin Walthall Sullivan McLaurin Gordon Percy Vardaman Harrison Eastland Doxey Eastland Cochran

Authority control WorldCat VIAF: 52859512 LCCN: n85121408 GND: 132803755

Persondata
Name	Bruce, Blanche
Alternative names
Short description	American politician
Date of birth	March 1, 1841
Place of birth	Farmville, Virginia
Date of death	March 17, 1898
Place of death	Washington, D.C.