Blanche Bruce
Blanche Kelso Bruce (March 1, 1841 — March 17, 1898) was an American politician. Bruce represented Mississippi as a U.S. Senator from 1875 to 1881 and was the first black to serve a full term in the Senate.
Biography
Bruce was born in Farmville, Virginia to a black slave and a white plantation owner, and was educated just as his legitimate half-brother was.
In 1850, Bruce moved to Missouri after becoming a printer's apprentice. After the Union Army rejected his application to fight in the Civil War, Bruce taught school and briefly attended Oberlin College in Ohio before working as a steamboat porter on the Mississippi River. In 1864, he moved to Hannibal, Missouri, where he established Missouri's first school for blacks.
Bruce later moved to Mississippi. There he became a wealthy landowner and was appointed to the positions of Tallahatchie County registrar of voters and tax assessor before winning an election for sheriff in Bolivar County. He later was elected to other county positions, including tax collector and supervisor of education, editing a local newspaper. In February 1874, Bruce was elected to the Senate as a Republican. In 1880, James Z. George was elected to succeed Bruce as Mississippi's representative.
In 1881, Bruce was appointed by President James Garfield to be the register of the Treasury, making Bruce the first black to be represented on U.S. currency. Bruce later served as the recorder of deeds for Washington, DC, and again register of the Treasury until his death in 1898.
