Black History Month - 8 - Hiram Revels, the first Black Senator

Hiram Revels - First Black Senator

I find the story of Hiram Revels fascinating.  I mean, Senator Revels was interesting as a person, but the story of Hiram Revels is more indicative of some things. First things first; 

So, he was an impressive man.

But that isn't what we learned in school history. 

When I was in school, 100 years AFTER the Civil War, we didn't hear about equality in the South after the war. We did not learn that ex-slaves voted in real change.

We were taught that "carpet baggers" from the northern states went to the south to exploit the population. We were told these carpet baggers rounded up illiterate ex-slaves to vote and to put uneducated Black men in office. Then, they exploited the men and the South for any wealth they had.

It only ended when reasonable white men ran these carpet baggers out of the South.

This was in California! 

I have since learned that the "reasonable white men" were Klu Klux Klan killers who struck laws that disenfranchised the ex-slaves and free black voters. They kicked out elected leaders and lynched hundreds of black men to strike terror into those left. This racism brought on Reconstruction. And we were taught Reconstruction was good - not the flagrantly racist system it was

When I was in school—and when most of you were—there hadn't been a Southern Black Senator since Reconstruction. The first Black Senator from the South was Republican Tim Scott of South Carolina in 2013, 150 years after the Civil War. (Remember, this was the war in which the South started to protect slavery and lost.)

So, I hope that future generations learn about the evils of Reconstruction, not from revisionists but from people who honor Hiram Revels. The First Black Senator who was a war hero and a minister - and history has treated badly.