Arlington County has bid farewell to Lee Highway and it’s namesake Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The county has since renamed the stretch of road Langston Boulevard, after abolitionist, attorney, and politician John Mercer Langston.
He might not be the most famous name, but after getting to know him, it’s clear he played a critical role in many historic movements of his time. Here’s ten quick, key facts about Virginia’s historic figure.
- Born free in Louisa, Virginia, in 1829.
- Parents (a white plantation owner and a Native American–Black woman) died in 1834. John moved in with a family friend and later became the ward of an abolitionist.
- Married Caroline Wall, a fellow abolitionist, in 1854, and raised five children with her.
- Great-uncle of poet Langston Hughes.
- Died at home in Washington, DC, in 1897.
- Partnered with older brother Charles in 1858 to help runaway slaves escape to the North along the Ohio part of the Underground Railroad.
- Established the law department at Howard University, the first Black law school in the country, in 1868, and served as the university’s dean from 1868 to 1875.
- Helped Republican Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts in drafting the bill that became the Civil Rights Act of 1875, signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant.
- Appointed resident minister to Haiti and chargé d’affaires to the Dominican Republic by President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877.
- Ran as a Republican for a Virginia seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1888 and was finally declared the winner in 1890, becoming the first Black person elected to Congress from Virginia. He would be the last for another century.
Feature image courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photography Division
This story originally ran in our October issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to our monthly magazine.
