The first black Republican to serve in the United States Senate was a preacher named Hiram Revels. He was born free, to free parents, in 1827. Mississippi state legislators sent Revels to Washington in 1870 to fill one of two vacancies. When the state seceded in 1861, its two senators accompanied him. One was Jefferson Davis.
opinion columnist
LZ Granderson
LZ Granderson writes about culture, politics, sports, and living life in America.
Revels, after serving in the Civil War, was first a community activist before becoming a politician. Given Davis' wartime role as president of the Confederacy, Mississippi's sending Revels to the Senate was a powerful rebuke to the racism that brought this country to the brink of destruction.
And do you know what Revels found when he arrived in Washington?
The same racism that brought this country to the brink of destruction.
Some Democrats opposed his appointment, claiming that Revels' past elections were invalid. Others claimed that Revels was not a US citizen.
Sounds familiar?
Anyway, Revels and the Republicans of his time overcame that ugliness and made history. And although he was only in office for a year, he used that time to defend black voting rights in the South and fought against segregation in the North. When it became illegal for free black men to live in Missouri, do you know where he moved? Missouri, putting his life at risk to be a beacon of hope for those who believed in the promise of America.
There is also a black Republican in the US Senate today, and this week He said he loves Donald Trump – a man who became the face of the birther movement that followed the nation's first black president. The only black Republican in the Senate wants you to believe that Trump will unite the country. At the same time, Trump is referring to Nikki Haley – a son of immigrants from India whose name is Nimarata – as “Nimbra.”
The first black Republican in the US Senate questioned racism. Today, the only black Republican in the Senate wants you to believe that racism is a thing of the past. As if his own biography—being the first black Republican elected to the Senate since Reconstruction—was not a sign of how racism endures.
In his endorsement of Trump, Scott suggested that the former president understood that “the American people are sick and tired of being sick and tired.” The American people never gave any sign that Trump was their man. He never even reached 50% job approval. He didn't even win the popular vote. The only black Republican in the Senate borrowed a phrase uttered by the iconic civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, another Mississippian, who said in 1964: “All my life I have been sick and tired. “Now I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
He was rallying support for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, a necessary corrective because the state that gave us Senator Revels had regressed and acted like the state that gave President Davis to the Confederacy. In 1965, blacks were prohibited from participating in Mississippi Democratic Party meetings. Faced with this segregation, black residents formed their own Democratic Party.
And now, the only Black Republican in the Senate in 2024 has endorsed a man who talks enthusiastically about the “good old days” at rallies. a man who wants to be dictator for a day and make America great again without clarifying exactly when he thinks America was at its best.
Maybe Scott is doing all this in hopes of being Trump's running mate, as if that would have worked out well for Mike Pence. Perhaps a cabinet position or appointment as ambassador. Or maybe Scott simply wants the party's approval of him, even though he now supports a man who tried to overturn the 2020 election by sue districts that are home to many people of color.
Regardless of Scott's reasoning, one thing is clear: The only black Republican in the Senate today is nothing like the first. Revels filled space and used his time in office to move toward an equitable future. And Scott… well, he loves Trump.
