BlackPerspective.net
Discussing the Diaspora as seen through an internal Black lens
A Historic Tale of a Rise to Prominence
February 11th, 2010
A 2006 interview I did with Lawrence Otis Graham for my local Nashville Pride newspaper.
From Slave to Senator
by: D. Yobachi Boswell
If you’ve had your television on at all the last 3 months you have undoubtedly scene a flurry of political ads. These would also include the historic run of Harold Ford Jr. to attempt to become the first black Senator from the South since reconstruction (Post-Civil War, Pre-Jim Crow). Lawrence Otis Graham’s new book “THE SENATOR AND THE SOCIALITE: The True Story of America’s First Black Dynasty” chronicles the storied life of the first black Senator, Blanche Kelso Bruce.
As Graham notes, “For the first time in U.S. history, African Americans are running for top posts in both the Republican and Democratic parties. With high-profile blacks currently in Senate and Governor races in numerous states, many believe that the 2006 election season will change the course of blacks in American politics”, making this work quite relevant at this time.
Blanche Kelso Bruce was born a slave in Virginia in 1841. After being freed from slavery in Mississippi1963; he went away to college and then returned to Mississippi where he entered politics in post-civil war, majority black Mississippi. This was during federal reconstruction, where black’s rights were insured by northern forces before their pullout in 1877. He built a power base, and amassed a real-estate fortune. He was then tapped by the Republican Party, the party blacks of the day universally belong to, to run for the Senate. He only severed one term as reconstruction ended, and Jim Crow bore down on blacks in the south. He elected not to return to Mississippi, even giving up his property; and then moving into federal government positions under three presidents.
I met with Lawrence Otis Graham on last Thursday night at Borders Book Store on West End Avenue before a book singing. Graham came across the story via his parents, who were both born and raised in Memphis, telling him stories of black southern heroes. He long knew of Bruce Blanche, but not the details of the man until he was led to look deeper a few years ago.
In lecturing on an earlier book of his, “Our Kind of People”, Graham was asked “if there was a family that epitomized the black upper class experience, if there was a black dynasty, like, the equivalent of the black Kennedys or the black Rockefellers. So I discovered that there was someone out there; it was Blanche Bruce, who had a true American story, a rags to riches story.”
Graham found source documents, letters, and pictures from Howard Universities, Harvard University, and the Philip Exeter boarding school (which Bruce attended); to compile the story over a 5-year period.
As Graham presented his work to the crowded gathered on the second floor before signing books, he painted a picture of a high achiever, dedicated to excellence, who rose from slavery to the highest heights of the U.S. government; not only as senator but as the second in command in the U.S. Treasury Department, ending up with his name on U.S. Currency.
The book also presents a look behind the scenes of his life including a marriage to a black Philadelphia socialite daughter of a doctor and a teacher, Josephine Willson, who would also become an educator herself and dean of Tuskegee Institute.
Lawrence Otis Graham is an attorney who mad national headlines 15 years ago when he went undercover as a waiter at an all white country club, writing the book “Member of the Club” about his experience and findings.
He also received top billing for “Our Kind of People”, in which he writes about his experience growing up in the black upper class and giving an inside look at the world of black socialite society and prominent organizations such as Jack and Jill and the Links.
I asked him about his motivation for writing about race and class:
“I’ve always considered my beat as a journalist, to be, writing about race and class; and here this fellow[Blanche Bruce] captures all those elements.”
“…having grown up in some of the organizations that define that class…growing up in Jack and Jill, my parents were in all these organizations, like the Links and the Boules; and then you grow up in that environment, then yet you don’t see it written about. And when it was being written about in the mainstream press, it wasn’t being written about by people that were apart of that…a white journalist to go in there and write about this peculiar black community…when in my experience there’s nothing peculiar about it. It’s the norm. You know, it’s the people at Fisk, it’s the people at Howard, its all these organizations and there not just in a few cities, they’re all around the country.”
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Yobachi Boswell is creator and publisher of BlackPerspecitve.net. I’m a writer, activist and political watcher based in Nashville, Tennessee. I’ve also been know to do some spoken word and MCing in my day.
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[...] Blanche Bruce (1975) and Hiram Revels (1870) from Mississippi were appointed by the state legislature in the post Slavery reconstruction era before the federal government abandoned Blacks in the South and Jim Crow set in. [...]
I am very much concerned about the fact that so much misinformation have been written about Senator Blanche Kelso Bruce in particular. In my numerous research projects on Senator Bruce, I have found his life will be worth the effort of sharing, but at this point, I must say there are a lots of good materials that will dispute some of the negatives that are still in print without backup materials. I am presently writing a major book on Senator Bruce, titled “Climbing the Hill from Slavery to Public Service: Careers of Senator Blanche K. Bruce.” I retired from the United States Senate Library after nearly 19 years on February 1, 2009. I have done a great deal of work on Senator Blanche Bruce in various forms. I am well acquainted with some his descendants, especially his great grandson Ronald C. Bruce, a former Circuit Court Judge in Idaho. I have learned a great deal about Senator Bruce’s Mother, Polly, and was given a picture her, through Judge Bruce. Please email me if you would like to be more informed on the true life of Senator. Sorry for the long bog, but I am so excited to be able to share my thoughts with you. Have a great day.