<P> The first two African - American senators represented the state of Mississippi during the Reconstruction Era , following the American Civil War . Hiram Rhodes Revels , the first African American to serve , was elected by the Mississippi State Legislature to succeed Albert G. Brown , who resigned during the Civil War . Some Democratic members of the United States Senate opposed his being seated based on the court case Dred Scott v. Sandford ( 1857 ) by the Supreme Court of the United States , claiming that Revels did not meet the citizenship requirement , but the majority of Senators voted to seat him . The Mississippi state legislature elected Blanche Bruce in 1875 , but Republicans lost power of the Mississippi state legislature in 1876 . Bruce was not elected to a second term in 1881 . In 1890 the Democratic - dominated state legislature passed a new constitution disfranchising most black voters . Every other Southern state also passed disfranchising constitutions by 1908 , excluding African Americans from the political system in the entire former Confederacy . This situation persisted into the 1960s until after federal enforcement of constitutional rights under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 . </P>
<P> The first two African - American senators represented the state of Mississippi during the Reconstruction Era , following the American Civil War . Hiram Rhodes Revels , the first African American to serve , was elected by the Mississippi State Legislature to succeed Albert G. Brown , who resigned during the Civil War . Some Democratic members of the United States Senate opposed his being seated based on the court case Dred Scott v. Sandford ( 1857 ) by the Supreme Court of the United States , claiming that Revels did not meet the citizenship requirement , but the majority of Senators voted to seat him . The Mississippi state legislature elected Blanche Bruce in 1875 , but Republicans lost power of the Mississippi state legislature in 1876 . Bruce was not elected to a second term in 1881 . In 1890 the Democratic - dominated state legislature passed a new constitution disfranchising most black voters . Every other Southern state also passed disfranchising constitutions by 1908 , excluding African Americans from the political system in the entire former Confederacy . This situation persisted into the 1960s until after federal enforcement of constitutional rights under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 . </P>
who was the first african american elected to the united states senate
who was the first african american elected to the united states senate
Hiram Rhodes Revels
Hiram Rhodes Revels