Langston, John Mercer (1829-1897)

US educator and public official. He was elected township clerk in 1855, the first African-American elected to public office. During the Civil War, he worked to recruit black troops and after the war he was inspector general of the Freedmen's Bureau (1868). He then moved to the newly-founded Howard University, where he served as dean and vice-president, and was one of the founders of the law school (1869-77). He served in the US diplomatic service (1887-85), before successfully serving as a Republican representative of Virginia in the House of Representatives (1889-91). He had to resort to the courts to have his election upheld, and his bid for re-election was unsuccessful.

The son of a plantation owner and his emancipated slave, Langston was born in Louisa County, Virginia. He was educated at Oberlin College, where he read theology and law; he gained his BA in 1849, and passed the Ohio bar exams in 1854. He published his autobiography, From the Virginia Plantation to the National Capital, in 1894.