Black History fact for the week!

Posted by Alicia on 5 February, 2008 in Black History

John Langston was a black leader, educator, and diplomat, who is believed to have been the first black ever elected to public office in the United States.

The son of a Virginia planter and a slave mother, Langston was emancipated at the age of five, attended school in Ohio, and graduated from Oberlin College in 1849. He quickly became a leader among free blacks and was elected to local offices in Brownhelm Township, Ohio (1855), and Oberlin (1865-67). In 1864 he helped organize the National Equal Rights League, of which he was the first president.

1888 he was a Republican candidate from Virginia for the U.S. House of Representatives, and, after a challenge of the election returns that took almost two years, he succeeded in unseating his Democratic opponent and served in Congress from Sept. 23, 1890, to March 3, 1891.

To read more about John Langston visit:

www.oberlin.edu/EOG/OYTT-images/JMLangston.html