Blanche Kelso Bruce was born a slave in 1841 in Prince Edward County, Virginia but was raised in Missouri. Shortly after the beginning of the Civil War, Bruce fled to Kansas, becoming a free man before Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. After the Civil War he returned to Missouri and founded the first school for African Americans in Hannibal.  Bruce briefly attended Oberlin College, but out of funds, began working as a steamboat porter on the Mississippi River.  Hearing Mississippi gubernatorial candidate James L. Alcorn speak, Bruce decided to move to the state in 1869 to enter politics. Mentored by white Republicans, his political rise was swift. He was sergeant at arms in the State Senate, then Sheriff and Tax Collector of Bolivar County in 1871. As Bolivar County Superintendent of Education, he started more schools.  Financially successful due to his job as Sheriff, he bought a 640-acre plantation in Floreyville, Mississippi in 1873. Bruce was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1875 and served to 1881.  Although he was the second black Senator, after fellow Mississippian Hiram Revels, he was the first to serve a full term.  When the Democrats gained control of the state in the … Continue reading Blanche Kelso Bruce (1841-1898)