Blanche Bruce
Blanche Bruce | |
---|---|
Glenni Scofield | |
Succeeded by | William Rosecrans |
United States Senator from Mississippi | |
In office March 4, 1875 – March 4, 1881 | |
Preceded by | Henry R. Pease |
Succeeded by | James Z. George |
Personal details | |
Born | Blanche Kelso Bruce March 1, 1841 Farmville, Virginia, U.S. |
Died | March 17, 1898 Washington, D.C., U.S. | (aged 57)
Resting place | Woodlawn Cemetery |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse | Josephine Willson |
Children | Roscoe |
Education | Oberlin College |
Signature | |
Blanche Kelso Bruce (March 1, 1841 – March 17, 1898) was an American politician who represented
His home, the Blanche K. Bruce House, is a National Historic Landmark.
Early life and education
Bruce was born into
Career
Bruce attended Oberlin College for two years in Oberlin, Ohio. He next worked as a steamboat porter on the Mississippi River. In 1864, he moved to Hannibal, Missouri, where he established a school for black children.
In 1868, during
In February 1874, Bruce was elected to the U.S. Senate, the
At the
In early 1889, politically-connected blacks lobbied for Bruce to receive a Cabinet appointment in the Harrison Administration. Said one newspaper: "Bruce is a man of respectable ability, and has, perhaps, more than any other man of his race who has sat in Congress, the respect of those with whom he served.[8]
Bruce served by appointment as the
Personal life
On June 24, 1878, Bruce married
One newspaper wrote that Bruce did not approve of the designation "colored men." He often said, "I am a Negro and proud of it."[4]
Honors and legacy
In July 1898, the
In 1975, the Washington, D.C. residence of Bruce, was declared a National Historic Landmark and formally named The Blanche K. Bruce House.[15]
In October of 1999, the U.S. Senate commissioned a portrait of Bruce. African-American Washington D.C. artist Simmie Knox was selected in 2000 to paint the portrait, which was unveiled in the Capitol in 2001.
In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Blanche Bruce on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.[16]
A historical highway marker marking Bruce's birthplace at the intersection of highway 360 and 623 near Green Bay, Prince Edward County, Virginia, was unveiled by the African American Heritage Preservation Foundation on March 1, 2006.[17]
In June 2006, a historical book about Bruce was authored by Lawrence Otis Graham, titled The True Story of America's First Black Dynasty: The Senator and the Socialite.[18]
See also
References
- ^ Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
- ^ The Politico.
- ^ "Reminiscences of the Kansas Life of Ex-Senator B. K. Bruce".
- ^ a b c Wright, John Aaron (2002). Discovering African American St. Louis: A Guide to Historic Sites. St. Louis, Missouri: Missouri History Museum.
- ^ Rev. William J. Simmons, Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive, and Rising, 1887. pp. 699–703. Geo. M. Rewell& Co., 1887
- ^ Eric Foner (July 2, 2006). "Rise and Fall of the House of Bruce". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C.
- ISBN 0786419431.starting on May 18, 1881)
Senator Bruce was also the first African-American to preside over the Senate and the first African-American whose signature appeared on all the nation's paper currency (as Register of the Treasury
- ^ "Color in the Cabinet". Big Sandy News (Louisa, KY). January 3, 1889. Retrieved December 2, 2023.
- Newspapers.com.
- ^ The Executive Documents of the House of Representatives for the third session of the fifty-third Congress 1894–1895. Government Printing Office. 1895. p. 819. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
- ^ Seraile, William. Bruce Grit: The Black Nationalist Writings of John Edward Bruce. Univ. of Tennessee Press, 2003. pp. 110–111.
- ^ "Blanche K. Bruce". Biography. Archived from the original on October 13, 2018. Retrieved October 12, 2018.
- ISBN 978-0195301731.
- ^ Annual Report of the Commissioners of the District of Columbia for the year ended June 30, 1899. Government Printing Office. 1899. p. 36.
- ^ "Blanche K. Bruce House - Blanche K. Bruce, the only formerly enslaved man to serve in the Senate and the first Black man to serve a full term, lived in this house while a Senator". DC Historic Sites. Retrieved August 27, 2023.
- ISBN 1573929638.
- ^ African American Heritage Preservation Foundation, Inc. (February 13, 2006). "Dedication Ceremony honoring ex-slave Blanche Kelso Bruce, 1st Black senator to serve a full term". History News Network.
- ^ "The Senator and the Socialite - Lawrence Otis Graham - Paperback". HarperCollins Canada. Retrieved August 27, 2023.
Bibliography
- Graham, Lawrence Otis (2006). The Senator and the Socialite: The True Story of America's First Black Dynasty. New York: Harper Collins. ISBN 978-0060985134.
- Patler, Nicholas (2012). "The Black 'Consummate Strategist': Blanche Kelso Bruce and the Skillful Use of Power in the Reconstruction and Post-Reconstruction Eras," pp. 23–46, in Matthew Lynch, ed., Before Obama: A Reappraisal of the Black Reconstruction Era Politicians. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Publishing. ISBN 978-0313397929.
- Patler, Nicholas. "A Black Vice President in the Gilded Age? Blanche Kelso Bruce and the National Republican Convention of 1880," in Journal of Mississippi History (Summer 2009), pp. 105–138.
- Rabinowitz, Howard N., ed. Southern Black Leaders of the Reconstruction Era (1982), pp. 1–38.
External links
- United States Congress. "Blanche Bruce (id: B000968)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved on 2009-03-26
- Blanche Bruce at Find a Grave
- Biography and Joe Kelso.Tripod
- Review of The Senator and the Socialite
- The story of his life is retold in the 1949 radio drama "The Saga of Senator Blanche K Bruce", a presentation from Destination Freedom, written by Richard Durham