a slave.The identity of his daddy is unknown,he took the surname of the man who owned his mama before he was born.His childhood as a slave
on a small Virginia,first in Virginia,then briefly in Mississippi,and finally
in Missouri did not signifcantly differ, as he later recalled,from that of the sons of whites.This relatively benign experience in slavery perhaps owed a great deal to the fact he was light-skinned favorite of a benevolent master and mistress.He shared a tutor with his master's
son and thus obtained the education that prepared him for later success.During the Civil War,despite the benevolence of his owner, he fled to freedom in Kansas, after slavery was abolished he returned to Missouri,where he reportedly established the first school in the state
for African Americans, at Hannibal.
After the war Blanche briefly attended Oberlin College in Ohio,following
the passage of the Reconstruction Acts of 1867,which provided for African American political equality in the former Confederate states,
he moved to Bolivar County in the Mississippi Delta.Soon after his arrival,the district commander appointed him a voter registrar in neighboring Tallahatchie County.He also organized plantation African Americans into the new Republican Party and soon attracted the attention of state party leaders.
When the first Mississippi legislature under the new order met,Blanche
was elected sergeant at arms of the state senate.A man of magnificent
physique and handsome countenance and possessed of impeccable manners,Blance won the support of white Republicans like Governor James Lusk Alcorn as as well as African Americans.In 1871 he won election to the joint office of sheriff and tax collector of Bolivar County.
The Republican state board of education.He virtually created the biracial segregated system of education in the county and secured the support
of whites for it.In all of these positions he gained a reputation for financial integrity.
Blance also invested in land and within a decade had attained the status of planter.In 1872 he was named to the board of levee commissioners
for a three-county district- a group with the power to raise revenue and
build embankments in the Delta region.Blanche's political and financial
success and his promotion of labor stability among African Americans workers had the effect of moderating the opposition of conservative
planters to Republican control in Bolivar County.
By 1874 his fame had spread beyond the Delta.His political skill and his moderation had won him support from all factions of the Mississippi
Republican Party.In February the legislature elected him to the U.S.
Senate he served on four committees,including the important select
committees on Mississippi River improvements on the Freedmen's Bank.
As chairman of the latter committee, he led the effort to reform the management of the institution and provided relief for depositors.
A Blanche-sponsored Senate bill to obtain congressional reimbursement for African American victims of the bank's failure did not pass.He also spoke out against a Chinese exclusion bill and for a more humane Indian policy.Blanche took these positions primary because of the harsh implications that such a racist,exclusionist policy had for African-Americans.
His main interest in the Senate was the defense of African-American rights in the South at a time when state and local Republican governments were replaced by hostile conservative ones.He was usually unobtrusive in attempting to persuade Congress,and specifically its Republican members,to enforce the Reconstruction amendments to the Constitution, he became passionate in denouncing the violence and
intimdation that characterized the Mississippi election of 1875,overthrowing Republican rule.
Despite bitter setbacks for African-American during this period,Blanche
remained committed to the Reconstruction period,Blanche remained
committed to the Reconstruction goal of African-American assimilation into American society with all of the rights of whites.He opposed both of the organized efforts at African American migration of the late 1870's the Kansas Exodus and the Back-to Africa movement.He did so on the
grounds that neither destination had much to offer African-Americans and that the rights of the race could yet be achieved in white America.
His prestige among African-Americans suffered considerably because of
his opposition to emigration.In 1878 he married Josephine Beall Willson [Bruce],the daughter of a prominent African American dentist of Cleveland,Ohio; they had one son.After marriage and the couple's acceptance into white Washington society,Blance became largely insulated from the black masses.
During hist last years in the Senate he devoted much of his time to
Republican Party Affairs and African-American education.In Mississippi he joined with two other African-American leaders,John Roy Lynch and
James Hill,to dominate the state Republican organization,gaining important federal patronage for his supporters.In promoting African-American education,he advanced the self-help doctrine,which ultimately became associated with Booker T.Washington.
With the Democrats in control of the state legislature,he made no effort
to obtain reelection to the U.S.Senate.After the expiration of his term,in
1881,he continued to live in Washington but retained his plantation in Mississippi.He also continued to participated in national Republican
politics and was a popular speaker on behalf of African-American education.In 1881 President James Garfield appointed Blance register
of the U.S. Treasury, and he continued to hold the office 1884-1885 he served as director of the African-American exhibits in the Industrial
Cotton Centennial Exposition held in New Orleans.These exhibits focused on the material progress that African-Americans had made since Emancipation.In 1896 he received strong support for a seat in William McKinley's cabinet,he had to settle for his previous position of
register of the Treasury.Blance died of diabetes in Washington, D.C.
the passage of the Reconstruction Acts of 1867,which provided for African American political equality in the former Confederate states,
he moved to Bolivar County in the Mississippi Delta.Soon after his arrival,the district commander appointed him a voter registrar in neighboring Tallahatchie County.He also organized plantation African Americans into the new Republican Party and soon attracted the attention of state party leaders.
When the first Mississippi legislature under the new order met,Blanche
was elected sergeant at arms of the state senate.A man of magnificent
physique and handsome countenance and possessed of impeccable manners,Blance won the support of white Republicans like Governor James Lusk Alcorn as as well as African Americans.In 1871 he won election to the joint office of sheriff and tax collector of Bolivar County.
The Republican state board of education.He virtually created the biracial segregated system of education in the county and secured the support
of whites for it.In all of these positions he gained a reputation for financial integrity.
Blance also invested in land and within a decade had attained the status of planter.In 1872 he was named to the board of levee commissioners
for a three-county district- a group with the power to raise revenue and
build embankments in the Delta region.Blanche's political and financial
success and his promotion of labor stability among African Americans workers had the effect of moderating the opposition of conservative
planters to Republican control in Bolivar County.
By 1874 his fame had spread beyond the Delta.His political skill and his moderation had won him support from all factions of the Mississippi
Republican Party.In February the legislature elected him to the U.S.
Senate he served on four committees,including the important select
committees on Mississippi River improvements on the Freedmen's Bank.
As chairman of the latter committee, he led the effort to reform the management of the institution and provided relief for depositors.
A Blanche-sponsored Senate bill to obtain congressional reimbursement for African American victims of the bank's failure did not pass.He also spoke out against a Chinese exclusion bill and for a more humane Indian policy.Blanche took these positions primary because of the harsh implications that such a racist,exclusionist policy had for African-Americans.
His main interest in the Senate was the defense of African-American rights in the South at a time when state and local Republican governments were replaced by hostile conservative ones.He was usually unobtrusive in attempting to persuade Congress,and specifically its Republican members,to enforce the Reconstruction amendments to the Constitution, he became passionate in denouncing the violence and
intimdation that characterized the Mississippi election of 1875,overthrowing Republican rule.
Despite bitter setbacks for African-American during this period,Blanche
remained committed to the Reconstruction period,Blanche remained
committed to the Reconstruction goal of African-American assimilation into American society with all of the rights of whites.He opposed both of the organized efforts at African American migration of the late 1870's the Kansas Exodus and the Back-to Africa movement.He did so on the
grounds that neither destination had much to offer African-Americans and that the rights of the race could yet be achieved in white America.
His prestige among African-Americans suffered considerably because of
his opposition to emigration.In 1878 he married Josephine Beall Willson [Bruce],the daughter of a prominent African American dentist of Cleveland,Ohio; they had one son.After marriage and the couple's acceptance into white Washington society,Blance became largely insulated from the black masses.
During hist last years in the Senate he devoted much of his time to
Republican Party Affairs and African-American education.In Mississippi he joined with two other African-American leaders,John Roy Lynch and
James Hill,to dominate the state Republican organization,gaining important federal patronage for his supporters.In promoting African-American education,he advanced the self-help doctrine,which ultimately became associated with Booker T.Washington.
With the Democrats in control of the state legislature,he made no effort
to obtain reelection to the U.S.Senate.After the expiration of his term,in
1881,he continued to live in Washington but retained his plantation in Mississippi.He also continued to participated in national Republican
politics and was a popular speaker on behalf of African-American education.In 1881 President James Garfield appointed Blance register
of the U.S. Treasury, and he continued to hold the office 1884-1885 he served as director of the African-American exhibits in the Industrial
Cotton Centennial Exposition held in New Orleans.These exhibits focused on the material progress that African-Americans had made since Emancipation.In 1896 he received strong support for a seat in William McKinley's cabinet,he had to settle for his previous position of
register of the Treasury.Blance died of diabetes in Washington, D.C.
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