John Mercer Langston (1829–1897)

Biographical Information

• John Mercer Langston, From the Virginia Plantation to the National Capitol, or The First and Only Negro Representative in Congress from the Old Dominion (1894), first quotation on p.12, and date of marriage on p. 142–143.
• John Mercer Langston, Freedom and Citizenship: Selected Lectures and Addresses of John Mercer Langston, LL.D., U.S. Minister Resident at Haiti. With and Introductory Sketch By Rev. J.E. Rankin, D.D., of Washington (1883).
• John Mercer Langston Papers, 1846–1930, John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library, Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee.
• John Mercer Langston Collection, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University, Washington, D.C.
• Ira Berlin et al, eds., Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861–1867, Series II, The Black Military Experience (1982), 92–93, 346–347.
• Langston Hughes, The Collected Works of Langston Hughes, Vol. 9, Essays on Art, Race, Politics, and World Affairs, ed. Christopher C. DeSantis (2002), p. 324 (third quotation).

Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute

• Hon. John Mercer Langston and the Virginia Normal & Collegiate Institute: His Call and Commission (n.d.), Johnston Memorial Library, Virginia State University, Ettrick, Virginia.
• John Mercer Langston, "Annual Report of the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute to the Board of Education of the State of Virginia," in Sixteenth Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction for the Year Ending July 31, 1886 (1886).
• John Mercer Langston, "Annual Report of the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute for the Fiscal Year 1886–'7" in Seventeenth Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Virginia… (1887).

Political Career

• 1888 and 1890 election results in Secretary of the Commonwealth, Election Records, 1776–1941, Election Record No. 92, Accession 26042, Barcode 1144518, State Government Records Collection, Library of Virginia.
• John M. Langston vs. E. C. Venable, 51st Congress, 1st session, House Report 2462.
• Congressional Record, 51st Congress, 1st session (1889), 10338–10339.
• Congressional Record, 51st Congress, 2d session (1891), esp. 828, 1479–1482 (second quotation on 1481), 3490–3493.

Secondary Sources

• Alan B. Bromberg, "John Mercer Langston: Black Congressman from the Old Dominion," Virginia Cavalcade 30 (1980): 60–67.
• William Francis Cheek, "Forgotten Prophet: The Life of John Mercer Langston," Ph.D. diss., University of Virginia, 1961.
• William F. Cheek, "A Negro Runs for Congress: John Mercer Langston and the Virginia Campaign of 1888," Journal of Negro History 52 (1967): 14–34.
• William F. Cheek, "John Mercer Langston: Black Protest Leader and Abolitionist," Civil War History 16 (1970): 101–120.
• William Cheek and Aimee Lee Cheek, John Mercer Langston and the Fight for Black Freedom, 1829–65 (1989).
• Luis-Alejandro Dinnella-Borrego, "From the Ashes of the Old Dominion: Accommodation, Immediacy, and Progressive Pragmatism in John Mercer Langston's Virginia," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 117 (2009): 215–249.

Newspapers

• Petersburg Daily Index-Appeal, August 20, 1888; August 23, 1888
• Richmond Planet, September 27, 1890

Obituaries

• Washington Post, November 16, 1897; November 19, 1897 (account of funeral)
• Richmond Planet, November 20, 1897 (editorial tribute)
• Washington Bee, November 20, 1897
• New York Sun, November 21, 1897

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