John Mercer Langston was born Dec. 14, 1829, in Louisa County, Va., to Ralph Quarles, a plantation owner, and Lucy Langston, a slave whom Quarles later freed. His parents died when he was four, leaving a large inheritance, and he moved to Oberlin, Ohio. At age 14, he entered Oberlin College and graduated with bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
After being denied entrance to law schools because of race, Langston read law with a judge and in 1854 became the first black American admitted to the Ohio bar. He then helped create the Republican Party and worked vigorously for anti-slavery causes and policies. He was the first black person to hold a U.S. elected office, winning the race for town clerk of Brownhelm Township in Ohio in 1855.
In 1868, Langston helped to organize and then became dean of America’s first black law school, at Howard University. He was named Howard’s acting president in 1872 but was later rejected as a full-term president because of ethnicity. Langston was elected a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1876.
He ran for the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia in 1888, and after contesting the election results for 18 months he won, becoming the first black from Virginia in Congress. Langston died Nov. 15, 1897.

— Michael J. Kleckner