First Colored Senator and Representatives

The fact that African Americans were beginning to represent southern states in Congress by the early 1870s was an event worthy of commemoration, and this print, The First Colored Senator and Representatives, was one of the efforts to mark it. From left to right, the men are Hiram R. Revels (1822–1901), Benjamin S. Turner (1825–1894), Robert C. De Large (1842–1874), Josiah T. Walls (1842–1905), Jefferson F. Long (1836–1900), Joseph H. Rainey (1832–1887), and R. Brown Elliot (1842–1884). Like the great majority of legislators, none of these men particularly distinguished themselves during their congressional tenures. Nevertheless, they and the many other African Americans who gained lesser public offices in the 1860s and 1870s acquitted themselves honorably. In so doing, they gave lie to critics who charged that black officeholding during the Reconstruction era led to irresponsible government.