John Mercer Langston was a U. S. Representative who was born on Dec. 14, 1829 in Louisa County, Virginia. He graduated from Oberlin College and became a leader for free blacks. He was elected to local offices; on Sept. 10, 1855, Langston was elected township clerk of Brownhelm, Ohio, and he was the first black to hold such an elective office in the U.S.
In 1864, Langston was crucial to the organization of the National Equal Rights League, and he served as first president. In 1888, Langston was a Virginia Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives. He served in Congress from 1890 to 1891.
