There is a lot that can be said about John Mercer Langston. Not only was he the first black man to pass the bar exam but he was also one of the first to ever hold a political office title when elected to the post of Town Clerk for Brownhelm, Ohio, in 1855 .
John Mercer Langston was one of the most prominent African Americans in the United States before and during the Civil War. He was as famous as his political nemesis, Frederick Douglass. Langston topped off his long political career by becoming the first black man to represent Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was also the last to be elected for another century.
In 1868 Langston moved to Washington, D.C., to establish and serve as the founding dean of Howard University's law school; this was the first black law school in the country. Appointed acting president of the school in 1872, and vice president of the school, Langston worked to establish strong academic standards.
In 1877, President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed Langston resident minister to Haiti and chargé d'affaires in Santo Domingo.
John Mercer Langston was also the great-uncle of Langston Hughes (his brother Charles was Langston's great-grandfather), famed poet of the Harlem Renaissance.
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