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Collection Reference Number GLC09400.284
From Archive Folder Collection of letters of the first African American to serve a full term in the Senate 
Title Oscar Lee to Blanche Kelso Bruce asking if he could help him secure a position in Washington
Date 26 November 1877
Author Lee, Oscar (fl. 1877-)  
Recipient Kelso Bruce, Blanche  
Document Type Correspondence
Content Description Pleads his case for a position in Washington to Bruce. States that he is just a poor young man with a poor mother and father to take care of.
Subjects African American History  African Americans in Government  Congress  Reconstruction  Government and Civics  Office Seeker  
People Bruce, Blanche Kelso (1841-1898)  Lee, Oscar (fl. 1877-)  
Place written Washington, D.C.
Theme Government & Politics; African Americans
Sub-collection The Gilder Lehrman Collection, 1860-1945
Additional Information Blanche Kelso Bruce was born into slavery near Farmville, Prince Edward County, Va. on March 1 1841. He was tutored by his master's son, but left his master at the beginning of the civil war and taught school in Hannibal Mo. After the civil war Bruce became a planter in Mississippi, and a member of the Mississippi Levee Board, and Sheriff and Tax Collector for Bolivar County from 1872-1875. Bruce was then elected as a Republican to the United States Senate, where he served from March 4 1875 - March 3 1881. Bruce was the first African American to serve a full term in the U.S. Senate. In 1881 Bruce was appointed by President James Garfield as the Register of the Treasury. Bruce then went on to serve as the Recorder of Deeds for the District of Colombia from 1891-1893, returning to the office of Register of the Treasury from 1897 until his death on March 17, 1898.
Copyright The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Module Civil War, Reconstruction and the Modern Era: 1860-1945