Blanche Kelso Bruce

• Born: March 1, 1841
• Birthplace: Near Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia
• Died: March 17, 1898
• Place of death: Washington, D.C.

Politician

A former slave, Bruce sought to provide rights and economic opportunities for African Americans in Mississippi after the Civil War. His conscientiousness and integrity led to his election as the second African American in the U.S. Senate and the first to be elected for a full term.

Area of achievement: Government and politics

Early Life

Born on a small plantation near Farmville in south-central Virginia, Blanche Kelso Bruce enjoyed many privileges his fellow slaves did not. There is considerable speculation that his master was his father, although there is no definitive proof. Bruce, a relatively light-skinned mulatto, was treated similarly to his owner’s sons. His family was kept together, and, most important for his future, he received an education. His owner moved the household to Missouri, back to Virginia, to Mississippi, and in 1850 back to Missouri. In 1862, Bruce fled to Kansas, but he returned to Missouri in 1864 to establish the state’s first school for African Americans, in Hannibal. He briefly attended Oberlin College after the Civil War but could not afford the tuition.

After working for a short time in St. Louis, in February of 1869 Bruce moved to Bolivar County, Mississippi, which had a substantial black majority with political rights, thanks to congressional Reconstruction laws. It seemed a perfect setting for the ambitious, educated Bruce to make his fortune through landowning and politics.

In the ensuing five years, Bruce was appointed or elected to a variety of local government positions. In each, he earned the respect of his white neighbors and the black population. A large man, Bruce had a formidable presence and exquisite manners. He also was scrupulously honest in his personal dealings and financial matters. Bruce quickly drew the attention of white Republican leaders in Mississippi. Holding public office also provided him enough money to acquire hundreds of acres of fertile Mississippi bottomland. Bruce began his political ascent by serving as the sergeant-at-arms in the Mississippi Senate for one term. He returned to Bolivar County and was elected sheriff and tax collector in November, 1871. The next year, he was appointed county superintendent of education. Bruce created a system of twenty-one schools that educated more than one thousand students. He accepted segregated education and reassured the white population by gradually replacing white northern missionaries with African American teachers in the black schools. He accepted appointment to the district board of levee commissioners. In trying to control the devastating flooding of the Mississippi River, Bruce protected his own property, but he also felt he aided white landowners and a needy black labor force.

Life’s Work

Bruce took his political skills to the next level by negotiating between the two factions of Mississippi Republicans. Offered state offices by each side, Bruce chose to align himself with the more radical faction, led by Adelbart Ames. Bruce declined Ames’s offer of the lieutenant governor’s seat, which would have given Bruce the governorship when Ames sought the open U.S. Senate seat. Because Bruce commanded the loyalty of a large segment of the black population, he was able to win the nomination for the Senate. The Mississippi Legislature easily elected Bruce on February 3, 1874. Even a few conservative Democrats supported his election. Bruce was the first African American to be elected to a full term in the Senate.

Bruce arrived in Washington, D.C., at a time when the national Republican Party was withdrawing its support for southern Republicans and African American rights. Increasingly ignored by his party and scorned by the Democrats, Bruce nevertheless worked hard to protect black political rights and economic opportunities. Relying on his own experience, Bruce saw education as a way to provide African Americans with the means to advance in society. He rejected the “Exodusters,” southern African Americans who migrated to Kansas, and especially disapproved ofback-to-Africa movements. While he sought federal relief for the migrants, Bruce’s stances increasingly alienated him from the black masses.

Ultimately, Bruce saw assimilation as the only solution for African Americans. Assimilation, however, was much easier for him than for many other African Americans. Symbolic of that separation was his marriage to Josephine Beall Wilson, the light-skinned daughter of a prominent Cleveland dentist. Their Washington household became a center of social activity. His 800-acre farm in Mississippi made Bruce a wealthy man.

With the Democrats taking control of the Mississippi government in 1875, Bruce was destined to serve just one term in the Senate. His connections to Republican presidents James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, and William McKinley guaranteed him the well-paying and prestigious federal position of Register of the Treasury. In 1884-1885, Bruce used his appointment as director of the black exhibits in the World Cotton Centennial in New Orleans to emphasize not only the accomplishments of his race but also the self-help doctrine that made them possible. He eventually became interested in the educational philosophy of Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee Institute. Bruce died of diabetes in 1898, four months after resuming his position at the Treasury under President McKinley.

Significance

Had Reconstruction not been stunted by southern white resistance and northern abandonment of the South, Bruce would have been well situated to contribute to racial harmony and black advancement. His political skills and integrity commanded widespread respect. Sensing the futility of advocating black political equality, Bruce shied away from confrontation and advocated an early form of Booker T. Washington’s economic self-help philosophy. Without a state office, however, Bruce became increasingly distant from and less relevant to the black population. His career underscores the great potential of post-Civil War race relations and its ultimate tragedy.

Bibliography

Dray, Philip. Capitol Men: The Epic Story of Reconstruction Through the Lives of the First Black Congressmen. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008. Engaging account of the promise and frustration of Reconstruction at the national and state levels as experienced by Bruce and other black leaders.

Graham, Lawrence Otis. The Senator and the Socialite: The True Story of America’s First Black Dynasty. New York: HarperCollins, 2006. Popular biography of three generations of Bruce’s family with valuable research about his wife and Bruce’s family life.

Harris, William C. “Blanche K. Bruce of Mississippi: Conservative Assimilationist.” In Southern Black Leaders of the Reconstruction Era, edited by Howard N. Rabinowitz. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1982. This scholarly assessment notes Bruce’s political skills and business ambitions, which influenced his policy goals.

Patler, Nicholas. “A Black Vice President in the Gilded Age? Senator Blanche Kelso Bruce and the National Republican Convention of 1880.” Journal of Mississippi History 71 (Summer, 2009): 105-138. A vigorous scholarly argument that Bruce’s legislative career was more distinguished and visionary than previously believed.

Rabinowitz, Howard N. “Three Reconstruction Leaders: Blanche K. Bruce, Robert Brown Elliott, and Holland Thompson.” In Black Leaders of the Nineteenth Century, edited by Leon Litwack and August Meier. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988. Solid, brief biography that underscores the separation of Bruce from the black masses and contextualizes his style of leadership.