Blanche Kelso Bruce

M-35

Blanche Kelso Bruce, African American political leader, was born into slavery south of here on 1 Mar. 1841. He grew up in Virginia, Mississippi, and Missouri before escaping slavery during the Civil War. In 1869 Bruce moved back to Mississippi and became active in local and state politics. In Feb. 1874, the Mississippi legislature elected him to the U.S. Senate. Bruce was the first black to serve a full term in the Senate (1875-1881). After completing his term in office, he held several political positions in Washington, D.C. He died on 17 Mar. 1898 in Washington, D.C., and was interred there in Woodlawn Cemetery.

Department of Historic Resources, 2005

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

“Death of Blanche K. Bruce,” New York Times 18 March 1893; John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, American National Biography (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 3; James Haskins, Distinguished African American Political and Governmental Leaders (: Oryx Press, 1999), 30-32; Howard N. Rabinowitz, “Three Reconstruction Leaders: Blanche K. Bruce, Robert Brown Elliott, and Holland Thompson,” in Leon Litwack and August Meir, Black Leaders of the Nineteenth Century (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988), 191-217; Bruce A. Ragsdale and Joel D. Treese, Black Americans in Congress, 1870-1989 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1990), 7-9; Melvin I. Urofsky, “Blanche K. Bruce,” Journal of Mississippi History, 29 (May 1967): 118-141.