The only African American of the 19th Century that was more prominent and influential than John Mercer Langston was Frederick Douglass. John Mercer Langston was the first Black American elected to public office in the United States and was twice suggested as a candidate for vice-president of the United States on the Republican ticket. During his lifetime, Langston's career would involve education, law and politics.

Langston was the freeborn son of Ralph Quarles, a white plantation owner, and Jane Langston, a black slave. After his parents died when Langston was five, he and his brothers moved to Oberlin, Ohio, to live with family friends. Langston enrolled in Oberlin Colleger at age 14 and earned Bachelors and Masters degrees from the institution. Denied admission into law school, Langston studied law under attorney Philemon Bliss and was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1854.

By the time Langston was 18, he was actively involved in the anti-slavery movement, organizing antislavery societies locally and a the state level. He helped runaway slaves to escape tothe North along the Ohio part of the Underground Railroad. In 1855 Langston becam the country's first black elected official when he was elected town clerk of the Brownhelm Township. He was a founding member and president of the National Equal Rights League, which fought for black voting rights. During the Civil War Langston recruited African Americans to fight for the Union Army. After the war, he was appointed inspector general for the Freedmen's Bureau, a federal organization that helped freed slaves.

Langston moved to Washington, DC in 1868 to establish and serve as dean of Howard University's law school - the first black law school in the country. He was appointed acting president of the school in 1872. In 1877 Langston left to become US minister to Haiti. He retured to Virginia in 1885 and was named president of Virginia Normal and Collegiate Insititute (now Virginia State University). In 1888 he ran for a seat in the US House of Representatives as an Independent. He lost to his Democratic opponent but contested the results of he election. After an 18-month fight, he won the election and served for six months. He lost his bid for reelection. Oklahoma's Langston University is named in his honor.