Thomas Ezekiel Miller | |
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Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Carolina's 7th district | |
In office September 24, 1890 – March 3, 1891 | |
Preceded by | William Elliot |
Succeeded by | William Elliot |
Personal details | |
Born | June 17, 1849 Ferrebeeville, South Carolina, United States |
Died | April 8, 1938 Charleston, South Carolina, United States | (aged 88)
Political party | Republican |
Spouse | Anna M. Hume |
Relations | William Wilson Cooke (son in-law) |
Alma mater | Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) |
Profession | Educator, attorney |
Thomas Ezekiel Miller (June 17, 1849 – April 8, 1938) was an American educator, lawyer and politician. After being elected as a state legislator in South Carolina, he was one of only five African Americans elected to Congress from the South in the Jim Crow era of the last decade of the nineteenth century, as disfranchisement reduced black voting. After that, no African Americans were elected from the South until 1972.
Miller was a prominent leader in the struggle for civil rights in the American South during and after Reconstruction. He was a school commissioner, state legislator, U.S. Representative, and first president of South Carolina State University, a historically black college established as a land-grant school.