Alongside luminaries including Frederick Douglass,
John M. Langston was one of the most prominent
African-American leaders in the United States during the
nineteenth century. In 1855, he became one of the first
African Americans to hold elective office in the nation as
the township clerk for Brownhelm, Ohio. On September
23, 1890, Langston, a lawyer, educator, activist, and former
diplomat, was sworn in to the 51st Congress (1889–1891)
after successfully contesting the election of his Democratic
opponent. Langston was the first Black Representative from
Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives—one of
many achievements in his long political career.
John Mercer Langston was born free in Louisa, Virginia,
on December 14, 1829. His father, Ralph Quarles,
was a plantation owner and had been a captain in the
Revolutionary War. Langston’s mother, Lucy, was a free
woman of Native American and African descent who had
been enslaved by Quarles. In 1806, Quarles emancipated
Lucy and their daughter, Maria. Lucy Langston left Quarles
shortly after she was freed and had three children outside
their relationship: William, Harriet, and Mary Langston.
The couple later reunited, though state law forbade them
to marry, and had three more children: Gideon, Charles
Henry, and John Mercer. When John Langston’s parents
died in 1834, his father’s estate was divided among his
three sons and held in trust. Four-year-old John Langston
moved in with a family friend, William Gooch, and his
family in Chillicothe, Ohio. When Langston was 10 years
old, Gooch made plans to move to Missouri, then a slave
state. John’s brother, William, sued to relinquish Gooch’s
custody over his brother, fearing the move would jeopardize
John’s freedom and his substantial inheritance. The court
prevented Gooch from taking John to Missouri, and
Langston entered the care of Richard Long, an abolitionist
who had purchased William Gooch’s Ohio farm.1
In 1840, John Langston’s brother Gideon brought him
to live in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he went to school and
was exposed to some of the strongest antislavery rhetoric
in the North. A year later, he experienced several days of
sustained White violence against Black communities in the
city. In 1843, William Langston took custody of John and
returned with him to Chillicothe.2
Following the example set by his older brothers and their
colleagues, who were among the first Black graduates of
Oberlin College in Ohio, Langston also attended Oberlin
and earned a bachelor’s degree in 1849 and a master’s degree in theology in 1852. Langston then set out to become a lawyer, a profession that had welcomed only three Black
men in the nation in the early 1850s. After two law schools
denied him admission, he studied under local abolitionists
in Elyria, Ohio. In September 1854, Langston appeared
before a committee on the district court to confirm his
knowledge of the law. The committee admitted him to the
Ohio bar but made clear they were affording this status only
because of Langston’s light skin, which they claimed granted
him the rights of a White man in the state. He commenced
his practice in Brownhelm, Ohio. In 1854, he married
Caroline Wall, also a former student at Oberlin, who was
active in the abolitionist movement. The couple had five
children: Arthur, Ralph, Chinque, Nettie, and Frank.3
By the mid-nineteenth century, Langston began regularly
attending Black political conventions in Ohio. By one
count, he attended at least 21 of these public meetings
convened by African Americans to mobilize support for
Black civil and political rights between 1849 to 1873.
By the early 1850s, Langston had entered politics, and
at one point allied with the Free Democrats, antislavery
activists previously affiliated with the Free Soil Party.
In early April 1855, Langston became one of the first
African Americans elected to public office in the United
States when Brownhelm Township voted him clerk on the
Liberty Party ticket. Following his victory, Langston wrote
a letter to Frederick Douglass to tell him the news, which
Douglass published in his newspaper, Frederick Douglass’
Paper. “What we so much need just at this junction,
and all along the future,” Langston advised, “is political
influence; the bridle by which we can check and guide to
our advantages, the selfishness of American demagogues.
How important, then, it is, that we labor night and day
to enfranchise ourselves.”4
In 1856, he left Brownhelm for Oberlin and served
on the town’s board of education, the first of several local
offices he held during more than a decade there, including
a seat on the Oberlin town council. During the Civil War,
Langston recruited Black soldiers for the U.S. Army. He
unsuccessfully pursued a commission as a colonel in the
U.S. Army in the final year of the war.5
Following the war, Langston led the National Equal
Rights League, a nationwide organization that campaigned
for Black voting rights and lobbied Congress to prohibit
discrimination. In 1867, Langston served as general inspector
of schools for the Freedmen’s Bureau, touring the postwar
South and encouraging formerly enslaved men and women
to seek educational opportunities. He regularly spoke out
against segregated facilities, including churches, and worked
with Republican Party officials to mobilize Black voters in
the South. He gave speeches, encouraged Black candidates
to run for office, and organized chapters of the Union
League throughout the region.6
For the first two decades of the postwar era, Langston
held prominent political and educational appointments.
In 1868, he returned to Washington, DC, where he
established the law department at Howard University, a
new college founded for Black students. In the early 1870s,
Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts sought Langston’s
aid in drafting his civil rights bill. In 1871, Langston received
an appointment from President Ulysses S. Grant—for whom
he had campaigned in 1868—to the District of Columbia
board of health. During his tenure at Howard University,
Langston served as dean of the law department and later as
vice president and acting president from December 1873 to
June 1875. Langston resigned from Howard when the board
of trustees failed to offer him a full term as president.7
In 1877, President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed
Langston resident minister to Haiti and chargé d’affaires
in Santo Domingo, a position he held until 1885 when
Democratic President Grover Cleveland began his first term
in office. In 1882, the Democratically-controlled Congress
voted to reduce Langston’s salary after he campaigned for
Republican President James A. Garfield in 1880. Following
his departure in 1885, Langston petitioned the U.S. Court
of Claims for more than $7,000 withheld from him during
his service. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in his favor in
1886. From 1885 to 1887, Langston served as president of
the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute in Petersburg.
He left when the college’s board of governors fell into
Democratic hands.8
Langston settled in south-central Virginia and became
active in the community. In 1888, a citizen’s committee
asked Langston to run for a seat in the U.S. House,
representing the “Black Belt of Virginia,” a region where
African Americans were 65 percent of the population.
Langston began an energetic campaign for the Republican
nomination, lobbying Black and White delegates to the
district convention.9
White Republicans led by former Confederate general
William Mahone, a central figure in Virginia Republican
politics, worked against Langston’s candidacy. Mahone used his formidable influence with Black and White Republicans in the district—cultivated by the distribution of patronage
positions—to hold a district convention that excluded
Langston’s supporters and nominated White candidate
Judge R.W. Arnold. Langston appealed for support from
the national Republican executive committee to no avail,
but the national party also did not respond to Mahone’s
request for campaign support during the race. Langston,
who ran as an Independent Republican against both Arnold
and the Democratic nominee, methodically canvassed the
district. He invested $15,000 of his own money into the
campaign to purchase a meeting hall and hire organizers.
He also benefited from the support of local women’s clubs
established to back his candidacy.10
Langston’s Democratic opponent, Edward Venable,
refused to divide time with him at public meetings
throughout the campaign. Moreover, because Langston’s
candidacy as an Independent Republican threatened to
divide the Republican vote, several prominent African
Americans came out against him. By the 1880s, Langston
and Frederick Douglass clashed over political arguments
that increasingly turned personal. As the election neared,
Douglass wrote a letter denouncing Langston’s candidacy
as detrimental to the goals of the Republican Party, and
the Mahone faction spread copies throughout the district.
On Election Day, Langston dispatched supporters to
monitor every precinct for fraud and other irregularities.
His lieutenants instructed voters to say Langston’s name
after voting as evidence of their support. Black voters were
directed to separate lines at the polls, forcing them to wait
as long as three hours to vote. Ballot boxes were allegedly
emptied of Langston’s votes, and Langston’s supporters were
not permitted to witness the count. Arnold drew enough
Republican votes from Langston to put him in second,
641 votes behind Venable. Arnold was a distant third.11
Langston contested the result in the House. Both
Venable and Langston accused the other campaign
of buying votes. But Langston made the case that the
Democrats had manipulated the lines at polling sites
and used other means such as intimidation to turn away
Black voters. Langston’s poll observers corroborated these
charges with evidence, and the Republican majority on
the Committee on Elections ruled in Langston’s favor on
June 16, 1890.12
The House, however, delayed hearing his case for three
months. Democrats repeatedly blocked Langston’s claim
from receiving consideration on the floor, primarily by
denying the House a quorum, which it needed to proceed
with debate. Earlier in the year, the Republican Speaker of
the House, Thomas Brackett Reed of Maine, had done away
with obstructionist tactics that the minority party had long
used to frustrate and delay the majority’s agenda. Reed’s
reforms empowering the GOP majority proved crucial in
Langston’s seating in the 51st Congress.13
On September 23, 1890, Langston’s case finally came
to a vote before a crowded gallery occupied primarily by
African Americans. All but nine of the 152 Democratic
Members retired to the hallway to avoid a quorum. But
Republican discipline prevailed; the majority doggedly
mustered enough Members, primarily from their own ranks.
Despite Democratic protests, Reed announced a quorum
was present and the House declared Langston the winner by
a vote of 151 to 1. Langston held Virginia’s Fourth District
seat for the remaining seven months of the Congress.
Most Democratic Members were absent from the floor for
Langston’s swearing in, but a few welcomed him respectfully
when they returned. Langston was seated next to Henry
Plummer Cheatham of North Carolina, another Black
lawmaker, on the Republican side of the chamber.14
Langston was appointed to the Committee on
Education. The first session of the 51st Congress concluded
only one week after Langston was sworn in, and he returned
home to campaign for re-election. William Mahone, now
the governor, again refused to support Langston as his
district’s Republican candidate. Antagonized by Langston’s
Independent run for office in 1888, Mahone accused him
of “arraying black against white” and of undermining the
Republican Party’s interest in the state. With strong support
from Black voters, the district convention backed Langston.
Republican newspaper accounts indicated that President
Benjamin Harrison, congressional Republicans, and the
GOP national leadership supported Langston’s re-election.
Many White Republicans in the district, however, followed
Mahone’s lead and abandoned Langston. That year,
Democrats were also mobilized in opposition to Langston
for his support of a federal elections bill which would have
worked to protect Black voting rights. Langston ultimately
lost the election to Democrat James Fletcher Epes by about
3,000 votes in the state’s first Democratic sweep since before
secession. The contest mirrored a national trend: From
nearly a 20-Member deficit, Democrats in the U.S. House
captured a 100-Member majority in the 52nd Congress (1891–1893). Langston believed the election was tainted by fraud—as evidenced by long lines for Black Republicans
at the polls, missing ballots in Black strongholds, and
Mahone’s efforts to undermine his candidacy by urging his
supporters to vote for Epes. Ultimately, Langston decided
against contesting the election in the 52nd Congress
because Democrats held the majority.15
Langston returned to Capitol Hill in December 1890
for the second session of the 51st Congress. He made his
first speech on January 16, 1891, in support of the federal
elections bill which the House had already passed and
was then under consideration in the Senate. The measure
placed congressional elections under federal authority
and better secured Black voting rights. Langston recalled
the history of those of African descent in North America
and highlighted the contributions Black Americans had
made to the United States. Langston reminded the House
of the sacrifices African-American troops had made in
defense of their country as soldiers, as well as state court
rulings that had for decades confirmed the citizenship
of Black Americans. The elections bill, Langston said,
would not only protect Black voting rights but would
outlaw poll taxes and other restrictive measures that also
excluded White voters. Langston rejected calls for Black
Americans to emigrate abroad, reminding the House of
the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship. For
Langston, the bill would stop the Democratic Party’s efforts
to maintain a stranglehold on political affairs in the South.
Ultimately, Langston was optimistic about what he hoped
would be “the good time coming” in the United States
and declared that nothing would deter Black Americans
in pursuit of civil and political rights in the United States.
“Abuse us as you will, gentlemen,” Langston told the
Democrats in the chamber, “There is no way to get rid of
us. This is our native country.”16
One day after his speech, Langston asked the U.S.
Attorney General to send the House all documentation
he had regarding lawsuits in response to alleged violations
of voting rights laws. The Judiciary Committee agreed
to Langston’s resolution, and it was adopted in the
whole House.17
On January 19, Langston introduced a joint resolution
to amend the Constitution to mandate literacy tests
for all voters in the United States. Langston sought to
make this a federal requirement to undermine state
efforts designed to deliberately restrict Black voters.
In addition, the measure allowed for the reduction of
state representation in Congress based on the number of
voters rather than the total population. The House never
considered Langston’s amendment.18
Langston also submitted bills to establish a national
industrial university for Black students and to observe
the birthdays of former Presidents Abraham Lincoln and
Ulysses S. Grant as national holidays, but the bills died
in committee. Langston tried but was unable to secure
the appointments of several Black candidates to the U.S.
Military Academy at West Point, New York, and the U.S.
Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. He also supported
the Republican majority’s high tariff, which was designed to
drive up the price of cheap goods manufactured abroad in
the hope of protecting domestic producers.19
On February 27, 1891, Langston participated in debate
on a civil appropriations bill on the House Floor. He used
his experience as a diplomat to advocate for federal funding
to improve American shipping, recalling that he observed
an incessant flow of ships from Europe in Haiti during his
work there. He suggested that congressional investment
would help the United States grow its international
trade and provide for the “general welfare and defense of
American interests.”20
With the end of the 51st Congress, Langston returned
to Petersburg, Virginia. In 1892, Republicans in his
Virginia district asked him to run for the House again,
but he declined. He continued to be active in politics,
often speaking publicly about the achievements of Black
Americans. Promised a federal judicial appointment as
well as several U.S. Department of Treasury patronage
positions, Langston began campaigning for President
Benjamin Harrison’s re-election in 1892; however, when
the administration withdrew the promised positions, he
backed rival Republican James G. Blaine’s quest for the
nomination. Langston spent the remainder of his life
traveling between Petersburg and Washington and working
on his autobiography, From the Virginia Plantation to the
National Capitol, which was published in 1894. Langston
died at home in Washington, DC, on November 15, 1897.21
View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
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