Blanche Kelso Bruce This is Me

Education

 Web References

1. 1. TimesDispatch.com | Senator who was a slave to be honored

   www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/ - [Cached]

   Published on: 2/28/2006   Last Visited: 2/28/2006

   GREEN BAY, Va. - Exactly 165 years after Blanche Kelso Bruce was born a slave in Prince Edward County, a historical marker will be dedicated Wednesday to the first black person to serve a full six-year term in the U.S. Senate.
   
   But it was a long road from a plantation in Southside Virginia to the halls of Congress.
   
   Bruce was born on a plantation near Green Bay on March 1, 1841, the son of a slave and a white planter. He was the youngest of 11 children. As a child he worked as a field hand on the plantation of Pettus Perkinson, but he also learned to read from the tutor hired for the plantation owner's children. He lived as a slave in Mississippi and Missouri, but when the Civil War broke out he escaped to Lawrence, Kan., where he founded that state's first school for blacks. After the war, he moved to Hannibal, Mo., and established a school for blacks there as well.
   
   He attended Oberlin College briefly, dropped out for lack of money and became a porter on a Mississippi River steamboat.
   
   In 1869, Bruce moved back to Mississippi, where he bought an abandoned cotton plantation and made his fortune in real estate. Under Reconstruction, Bruce held several political offices until the Mississippi legislature elected him to the U.S. Senate in 1874.
   ...
   When Bruce arrived in Washington, Mississippi's senior senator, James Alcorn, refused to escort him to take his oath of office.
   ...
   So Bruce walked alone down the aisle of the Senate chamber until Sen.
   ...
   Bruce named his son after Conkling.
   ...
   During a Feb. 14, 1879, debate on Chinese immigration, Bruce took over the chair and became the only presiding officer of the Senate to have been born a slave.
   
   In the Senate, Bruce advocated civil rights for blacks, American Indians, Chinese immigrants and former Confederates. By the time his term was over, the Republicans were no longer in control of Mississippi politics, and Bruce had no chance of re-election. He turned down a political appointment to Brazil, because slavery was still practiced there, but held a number of government jobs in Washington until his death in 1898.
   
   The historical roadside marker, at U.S. 360 and state Route 623 near Green Bay, will be unveiled at noon Wednesday.

2. 2. TimesDispatch.com | Slave-turned-senator to be honored

   www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/ - [Cached]

   Published on: 2/26/2006   Last Visited: 2/26/2006

   Life of Blanche Kelso Bruce will be commemorated by marker in Prince Edward
   ...
   GREEN BAY - Exactly 165 years after Blanche Kelso Bruce was born a slave in Prince Edward County, a historical marker will be dedicated Wednesday to the first black person to serve a full six-year term in the U.S. Senate.
   
   > >
   
   But it was a long road from a plantation in Southside Virginia to the halls of Congress.
   
   Bruce was born on a plantation near Green Bay on March 1, 1841, the son of a slave and a white planter. He was the youngest of 11 children. As a child he worked as a field hand on the plantation of Pettus Perkinson, but he also learned to read from the tutor hired for the plantation owner's children. He lived as a slave in Mississippi and Missouri, but when the Civil War broke out he escaped to Lawrence, Kan., where he founded that state's first school for blacks. After the war, he moved to Hannibal, Mo., and established a school for blacks there as well.
   
   He attended Oberlin College briefly, dropped out for lack of money and became a porter on a Mississippi River steamboat.
   
   In 1869, Bruce moved back to Mississippi, where he bought an abandoned cotton plantation and made his fortune in real estate. Under Reconstruction, Bruce held several political offices until the Mississippi legislature elected him to the U.S. Senate in 1874.
   ...
   When Bruce arrived in Washington, Mississippi's senior senator, James Alcorn, refused to escort him to take his oath of office.
   ...
   So Bruce walked alone down the aisle of the Senate chamber until Sen.
   ...
   Bruce named his son after Conkling.
   ...
   During a Feb. 14, 1879, debate on Chinese immigration, Bruce took over the chair and became the only presiding officer of the Senate to have been born a slave.
   
   In the Senate, Bruce advocated civil rights for blacks, American Indians, Chinese immigrants and former Confederates. By the time his term was over, the Republicans were no longer in control of Mississippi politics, and Bruce had no chance of re-election. He turned down a political appointment to Brazil, because slavery was still practiced there, but held a number of government jobs in Washington until his death in 1898.
   
   The historical roadside marker, at U.S. 360 and state Route 623 near Green Bay, will be unveiled at noon Wednesday.