Hiram R. Revels was a Black American politician and minister born free in Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1827. Ordained by the African Methodist Episcopal Church he served a teacher of religion in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Tennessee, Missouri and Kansas. Formally educated in theology at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois in 1857 he became the minister of a Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore, Maryland and was the principal of the local Black high school. During the American Civil War, shortly after Congress authorized the creation of the United States Colored Troops, Revels recruited and organized two regiments of Black Union soldiers in Maryland and Missouri. In 1863, as a member of the U.S. Chaplain Corps, Revels ministered to combatants of the Battle of Vicksburg. During the era of Reconstruction, he relocated to Natchez Mississippi where he was elected alderman in 1868, state representative 1869 and U.S. Senator in 1870. Hiram Revels was the first Black American to serve in either house the of the U.S. Congress.
https://www.nps.gov/people/hiram-rhodes-revels.htm
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Hiram R. Revels