Revels, Hiram Rhodes (1827–1901)

US minister, senator, and educator. In 1870 he was chosen by a vote of the Mississippi legislature to fill the unexpired term of Jefferson Davis in the US Senate. He took an active role in trying to advance the rights of African-Americans, while at the same time calling for moderation in treatment of former Confederates. He became the first president of Alcorn University, the first land-grant college in the USA for black students.

Early in the US Civil War he helped to recruit two black regiments in Maryland, then served as the chaplain in such a regiment in Mississippi, where he organized black churches. In 1863 he established a school for freedom in St Louis. In his later years he was also pastor of a church at Holly Springs, Mississippi, and taught at Shaw (later Rust) College.

Born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, to free parents (of Indian as well as African-American descent), he attended Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois. Ordained a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1845, he served in various churches and capacities in several states before accepting a pastorate in Baltimore in 1860.