Blanche Kelso Bruce was born a slave in 1841, yet, remarkably, amassed a real-estate fortune and became the First Black man to serve a full term in the U.
S.
Drawing on Senate records, historical documents, and personal letters, author Lawrence Otis Graham weaves a riveting social hiStory that offers a fascinating look at race, politics, and class in America..
Yet later generations would stray from the proud Bruce legacy, stumbling into scandal and tragedy.
The Bruce family achieved a level of wealth and power unheard of for people of color in nineteenth-century America.
Grant among their influential friends.
He married Josephine Willson--the daughter of a wealthy Black Philadelphia doctor--and together they broke down racial barriers in 1880s Washington, D.
C., numbering President Ulysses S.
Senate.
Blanche Kelso Bruce was born a slave in 1841, yet, remarkably, amassed a real-estate fortune and became the First Black man to serve a full term in the U.
S
