John Mecer Langston

Abolitionist, attorney, educator, and politician John Mercer Langston was born on this day in 1829. He was one of the first African Americans elected to public office (as an Ohio town clerk in 1855) and later served in Congress as the first person of color representing Virginia. He was also the dean of the Howard University law school and the first president of what is now Virginia State University. He was the great-uncle of poet Langston Hughes.