Background
John Mercer Langston was born in Louisa County, Virginia, United States, on December 14, 1829. His mother was a slave. His father, who was the slavemaster, at his death freed Langston and provided for Langston's education in his will.
(Published in 1894, this is the biography of John Mercer L...)
Published in 1894, this is the biography of John Mercer Langston, an African-American who served as the the first U.S. Representative to Washington D.C.
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(Excerpt from Freedom and Citizenship: Selected Lectures a...)
Excerpt from Freedom and Citizenship: Selected Lectures and Addresses of Hon. John Mercer Langston, LL.; U. S. Minister Resident at Haiti Cultivated rhetoric, vigorous imagination, fine dis criminating logical powers, accurate and extensive knowl edge, sincere respect for his fellow-men, a soul-absorbing philanthropy, and a warm and benign earnestness; these are the qualifications of the successful pulpit orator. These were the qualities which gave such force and beauty to the discourses of Hall, such point and persuasion to the ser mons of Whitefield, and such weight and fervor to the preach ing of Chalmers. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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John Mercer Langston was born in Louisa County, Virginia, United States, on December 14, 1829. His mother was a slave. His father, who was the slavemaster, at his death freed Langston and provided for Langston's education in his will.
As a youth, he attended school in Cincinnati, Ohio, and grew to manhood there, in a free state. After graduating from Oberlin College in 1849, he sought admission to several law schools. However, none would accept him because of his color, nor could he find a lawyer willing to apprentice him in his office. Thus, unable to study law, Langston returned to Oberlin to study theology, taking his degree in 1853.
Afterward, he read law with Philemon Bliss of Elyria, Ohio, and was eventually admitted to the bar in 1854, after a delay again occasioned by his color. Langston settled in Lorain County, Ohio.
In 1855 he was elected town clerk - probably the first African American ever to hold an elective office in America. He was also active in organizing schools for black youth in Ohio and recruiting teaching staff. In 1867-1868 he was president of the Oberlin Board of Education.
During the Civil War he recruited a regiment of black troops, the 5th Ohio. He was also largely responsible for recruiting the famous 54th and 55th regiments of Massachusetts. His request for an officer's commission was under consideration when the war ended.
After the war Langston was named school inspector general of the Freedman's Bureau; he traveled throughout the South in the interest of better educational opportunities for African Americans. He was also active in organizing the National Negro Labor Union. In 1869 he became professor of law and dean of the law school at Howard University.
Under his administration the Howard Law School admitted and graduated the first woman lawyer in history - C. B. Ray of New York. From 1877 to 1885 Langston was U. S. minister to Haiti and chargé d'affaires at San Domingo. In 1885 he resigned from the diplomatic corps to reenter law practice.
That same year he was named president of Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, Petersburg, remaining in this office until 1888, when he was elected to Congress from Virginia. He was not seated in Congress for 2 years because of various technicalities, and his bid for a second term was defeated. Nevertheless, he remained interested in politics until his death. In 1882 he had published a collection of his speeches, Freedom and Citizenship. He died on November 15, 1897.
(Published in 1894, this is the biography of John Mercer L...)
(Excerpt from Freedom and Citizenship: Selected Lectures a...)
In 1888, Langston was urged to run for a seat in the U. S. House of Representatives by fellow Republicans, both black and white. Langston ran as a Republican and lost to his Democratic opponent.
In 1854 he married Caroline M. Wall. An intellectual partner of Langston, Caroline had five children with him, one of whom died in childhood. Their daughter Nettie became an important activist, and the wife of James Carroll Napier.