The Senator and the Socialite :
The True Story of America's First Black Dynasty

Description Timeline Cast of Characters Buy the Book

Description:

The biography of the first black to serve a full term in the U.S. Senate and his family by the bestselling author of  OUR KIND OF PEOPLE

This is the true story of America’s first black dynasty and follows three generations of a family that rose from slavery to the U.S. Senate.  Born a Mississippi slave in 1841, Blanche Kelso Bruce amassed a real estate fortune and became the first black to serve a full Senate term. He married Josephine Willson, the daughter of a wealthy black doctor, and they broke racial barriers as a socialite couple in 1880s Washington.  By hosting white Republicans and blacks like President Grant and Frederick Douglass, Bruce gained appointments under four Presidents, culminating with a Treasury post which placed his name on all U.S. currency.
The Bruces owned an 800-acre plantation, homes in four states and a fortune that sent their son and their grandchildren to the all-white Phillips Exeter and Harvard in 1896. 

Their wealth later ends in scandal when the Senator’s Harvard-educated grandson goes to prison and his granddaughter passes for white and marries a Hollywood actor. From Mississippi to D.C. to New York’s Harlem, the Bruce dynasty spans a 110-year period and includes friends like Booker T. Washington and John Rockefeller.  Here is a unique view of race and class in America.

Timeline:

Cast of Characters:

1. BLANCHE KELSO BRUCE – Born a slave in 1841 in Prince Edward County, Virginia, he later moved to Mississippi and became a Republican politician.  Married Josephine Beal Willson in Cleveland, Ohio. Father of Roscoe Conkling Bruce Sr. Elected to the U.S. Senate from Mississippi in 1874, later served as Register of the U.S. Treasury under Presidents Garfield, Arthur and McKinley.  Served as Recorder of Deeds for Washington, DC under President Benjamin Harrison.

2. JOSEPHINE BEAL WILLSON BRUCE – The wife of Senator Blanche K. Bruce and mother of Roscoe Conkling Bruce Sr.  Born in Philadelphia in 1853 to Dr. Joseph Willson and Elizabeth Harnett Willson. Married Blanche Bruce in 1878 in Cleveland, Ohio and became a respected socialite hostess among Washington’s white liberals and the black elite.  Originally an elementary school teacher, she was hired in 1899 by Booker T. Washington as Lady Principal (dean of women) at Tuskegee Institute, and later ran unsuccessfully for the national presidency of the National Association of Colored Women in 1901.

3. ROSCOE CONKLING BRUCE SR. – The only child of Blanche and Josephine Bruce. Born in Washington in 1879, he graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard University. Served as head of Education Department at Tuskegee Insitute, then as Superintendent of Washington DC’s Colored School system, then as Manager of John D. Rockefeller’s Dunbar Apartments in New York City. Married childhood friend Clara Burrill.

4. CLARA WASHINGTON BURRILL BRUCE – the childhood friend, and later, wife of Roscoe Bruce Sr.  Mother of Clara Jr., Roscoe Jr. and Burrill Bruce. Born in 1880, she attended Radcliffe College and Boston University Law School, where she became President of the law review, and the first black woman to pass the Massachusetts Bar. Published essays and poetry in several publications including the Saturday Evening Post. Served as assistant manager of Rockefeller’s Dunbar Apartments.

5. CLARA BRUCE JR. – Oldest child and only daughter of Roscoe Bruce Sr. and Clara Bruce Sr. Born in 1904, attended Washington DC’s Dunbar High School, Howard University and Radcliffe College. Against parents wishes, married Washington friend Barrington Guy. After having two sons, Clara and Barrington began “passing” as Indian and white in the 1940s.

6. ROSCOE CONKLING BRUCE JR. – Oldest son of Roscoe Conkling Bruce Sr. and Clara Washington Burrill Bruce. Born in 1906, attended Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard University.  The subject of a nationwide public 1923 battle when he was initially denied a room in white freshman dorms at Harvard. Later attended City College of New York. Hired by Prudential Insurance to manage Richard B. Harrison Apartments in New Jersey and was sent to state prison in 1937 after embezzling money from rent receipts.

7. BURRILL K. BRUCE – Youngest son of Roscoe Conkling Bruce Sr. and Clara Washington Burrill Bruce.  Born in 1909, attended Cambridge Latin School, New York University and Harvard Law School. Practiced law in New York City.

8. BARRINGTON GUY JR.(later known as Barrington Sharma) – Black Washington, DC childhood friend of Clara Bruce Jr. Eloped with Clara when she was entering Radcliffe and refused parents’ wishes to annul the marriage. During the 1920s and 1930s, he performed as a black actor and singer in New York plays, New York nightclubs and movies. In 1940, changed sir name to “Sharma” in order to “pass” for white or Indian, and performed in non-black clubs and performances.

9. POLLY  BRUCE – Mother of Blanche Bruce.  Worked as a house slave for, and owned by white owner, Lemuel Bruce. She was later owned by Lemuel Bruce’s daughter Rebecca Bruce Perkinson and Rebecca’s husband, Pettis Perkinson.  Died in Leavenworth, Kansas in the 1880s.

10. HENRY CLAY BRUCE – One of Blanche K. Bruce’s older brothers. Became active in the Kansas State Republican Party, served as Doorkeeper of the State Senate, and ran unsuccessfully for Kansas State Legislature in 1880.  Later worked in Washington DC for U.S. Pension Department.  Published his autobiography, The New Man: Twenty-Nine Years a Slave, Twenty-Nine Years a Free Man, in 1895.

11. JOSEPH WILLSON – The father of Josephine Willson and father-in-law of Blanche Bruce. Born in 1817, he was one of few black dentists in Philadelphia during the mid-1800s. He was born in Georgia, raised in Philadelphia and educated in Quaker schools. He authored a book on the black elite in 1841, Sketches of the Higher Classes Among the Colored Society in Philadelphia. According to the Richmond County, Georgia archives, his father, John, was a founding director, in 1810, of the Bank of Augusta.

12. ELIZABETH HARNETT WILLSON – The mother of Josephine Willson and mother-in-law of Blanche Bruce.  Like her husband, Joseph, she was born a free black person in Georgia.

13. LEONIDAS WILLSON – Brother to Josephine Willson and brother-in-law to Blanche Bruce.  Born in Philadelphia in 1846, he was one of the most successful black attorneys in the city and later in Cleveland.  After his first marriage, he later ended his ties to the black community and with his black family during the late 1890s.

14. EMILY WILLSON HARANG – Oldest sister to Josephine Willson. Her husband became the manager of Josephine and Blanche Bruce’s Mississippi plantation after the Senator’s death in 1898.

15. MARY WILLSON – The first of Josephine Willson’s two unmarried younger sisters who taught grammar school in Indianapolis.

16. VICTORIA WILLSON  - The second of Josephine Willson’s two unmarried younger sisters who taught grammar school in Indianapolis.

17. LEMUEL BRUCE – Original white slave owner of Blanche Bruce’s mother, Polly.  Father of Rebecca Bruce Perkinson.

18. REBECCA BRUCE PERKINSON – Daughter of Lemuel Bruce. Married to Pettis Perkinson and owner of Blanche Bruce.

19. WILLIE PERKINSON – White son of Blanche Bruce’s slave owners, Pettis Perkinson and Rebecca Bruce Perkinson, in Virginia.  Childhood playmate of Blanche who later joined Confederate Army.

20. GEORGE CORNELIUS SMITH – Close black friend and confidante to Blanche Bruce in Ohio, Mississippi and Washington. Often served as personal secretary and adviser on Senator Bruce’s correspondence and speeches.  Wrote articles about Blanche.

21. ADELBERT AMES – Liberal white Republican supporter of Blanche Bruce, who served as Provisional Governor of Mississippi 1868-1870, then was U.S. Senator representing Mississippi 1870-1874, and later served as Governor of Mississippi 1874-1876.  Born in Maine, he was a graduate of West Point and served as a corporal and brigadier general for the Union Army.

22. JAMES ALCORN – White Republican supporter of Blanche Bruce up until the time that Bruce was elected to the Senate. Alcorn wavered between moderate and liberal positions, and served as Governor of Mississippi 1870-1871, then as U.S. Senator representing Mississippi 1871-1877.  Refused to “present” Bruce to the Senate body on the day of Bruce’s swearing in at the Capitol.

23. ROSCOE CONKLING – Liberal white Republican U.S. Senator representing New York (1867-1881), and mentor of Blanche Bruce when the latter joined the Senate. Was the namesake for Blanche’s only child, Roscoe Conkling Bruce. A powerful political boss, Conkling got Bruce named to various Senate committees. He later fell out of favor with President Garfield.

24. JOHN ROY LYNCH – Black friend and political adviser to Blanche Bruce. Served as Speaker of the House in Mississippi Legislature.  Elected to U.S. House of Representatives in 1872, and then again in 1882. By the 1890s, became one of the wealthiest blacks in Washington. Worked with James Hill to maintain control over Mississippi Republican Party.

25. JAMES HILL – Black friend and Mississippi political adviser to Blanche and John Roy Lynch. Served as Mississippi Secretary of State and worked with John Roy Lynch and Blanche Bruce to maintain control over Mississippi Republican Party during 1870s and 1880s. Later resented Bruce’s national success and felt unappreciated after keeping Bruce’s power base in place.

26. PINCKNEY BENTON STEWART (P.B.S.) PINCHBACK – Wealthy black Republican Louisiana politician and friend of Blanche Bruce.  In 1868, elected to the  State Senate, then served as Lieutenant Governor and Governor of Louisiana, and published the black weekly newspaper, The New Orleans Louisianian. Was elected to the U.S. Senate, but was never allowed to be seated.  Later moved to Washington, DC.

27. GEORGE HOAR – White liberal Republican friend and Senate colleague to Blanche Bruce.  Powerful U.S. Senator from Massachusetts—serving 1877-1904—who hailed from aristocratic New England family of politicians.  Descendant of Harvard president, Leonard Hoar, and was brother of U.S. Attorney General Ebenezer Hoar. Graduated from Harvard and sat on the school’s board of overseers. Helped Blanche Bruce’s son gain entrance to Phillips Exeter and Harvard.

28. FREDERICK DOUGLASS  - Born a slave in 1817 in Maryland, he became one of the most prominent abolitionists in the nation. Supporter, adviser and friend to Blanche and Josephine Bruce. Served as Minister to Haiti, Recorder of Deeds and President of Freedmen’s Savings Bank. Asked Blanche and Josephine Bruce to serve as his witnesses at his controversial second marriage—to Helen Pitts, a white feminist newspaper editor and teacher—in 1884.

29. ARCHIBALD HENRY GRIMKE – Black friend of Blanche and Josephine Bruce. An 1874 Harvard Law School graduate, Grimke was appointed by Bruce to represent Massachusetts in the Colored Exhibits at the World’s Industrial Cotton Exposition in New Orleans in 1885, but Grimke later publicly denounced the worldwide gathering because its exhibits were racially segregated. Grimke’s brother, Francis, was the prominent Washington minister at Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church.
30.  T. JOHN MINTON SYPHAX (later known as T. Vincent McKee) – Black Washington, DC childhood friend of Roscoe Sr. Attended Phillips Exeter with Roscoe, then Trinity College and Columbia University School of Law, where he changed his name and began “passing” as white. Became Wall Street lawyer and married a white woman in New York City. Later, in the 1940s, publicly acknowledged his true black identity in order to claim a four million dollar family inheritance. Descendant of black elite Syphax family who donated their land to enlarge Arlington National Cemetery.

31. LUCIUS Q.C. LAMAR – White Democratic Mississippi politician who served as leading spokesman against Reconstruction and against black equality. Served in U.S. House of Representatives before and after Civil War, and U.S. Senator 1877-1885.  As junior Senator from Mississippi, had cordial relations with senior Senator Blanche Bruce. Although a segregationist, he reportedly recommended Bruce for Cabinet post and later served on the Supreme Court.

32. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON – Founder of Tuskegee Institute and influential educator who advised blacks to embrace “trade” schools and industrial labor rather than liberal arts colleges and professional careers. With the political and economic support of both liberal and conservative white industrialists like Andrew Carnegie and J. Pierpoint Morgan, became the most powerful black man in America. Hired Josephine Bruce as Lady Principal in 1899, paid Roscoe Jr. to “spy” on Booker’s opponents in Boston while Roscoe was a Harvard student.  Later hired Roscoe to head Tuskegee Institute’s Education Department in 1903. Disliked by many among the black elite.

33. ROBERT TERRELL – Black Washington lawyer and friend to Blanche and Josephine Bruce. Class of 1884 graduate of Harvard College, lawyer and municipal judge in Washington. Married to Mary Church of Memphis, daughter of Robert Church, the wealthiest black in the American South.  With his politically activist wife, Mary—who later sat on Washington Board of Education—he served as mentor to Roscoe C. Bruce Sr.

34. ULYSSES S. GRANT – 18th President.  Served 1869-1877.  Liberal Republican who supported Reconstruction policies and befriended Blanche Bruce.  Hosted Senator and Mrs. Bruce in Europe during their 1878 honeymoon.

35. RUTHERFORD B. HAYES – 19th President. Served 1877-1881. Although served as a Republican, his election was a key element of the Compromise of 1877, which led to the end of Reconstruction and advanced the racial goals of white Democrats and Southerners.

36. JAMES GARFIELD – 20th President.  Served 1881.  Ohio Republican who appointed Blanche K. Bruce as Register of the U.S. Treasury.  Became a foe of Bruce mentor Roscoe Conkling.

37. CHESTER A. ARTHUR – 21st President. Served 1881-1885 after Garfield’s assassination. Kept Bruce as Register of the U.S. Treasury.

38. BENJAMIN HARRISON - 23rd President. Served 1889-1893.  Indiana Republican who opposed putting blacks in important government roles, but was pressured into appointing Blanche Bruce Recorder of Deeds for Washington, D.C.

39. WILLIAM MCKINLEY – 25th President. Served 1897-1901. Ohio Republican who appointed Blanche K. Bruce as Register of the U.S. Treasury. 

40. WILLIAM WINDOM – Republican politician from Minnesota.  Served as U.S. Senator during Bruce’s time in the Senate.  Appointed Secretary of the Treasury by President Garfield and Bruce’s boss when the latter became Register of the Treasury 1881.

41. CALVIN CHASE – Attorney and publisher of the black Washington newspaper, The Washington Bee, which he ran from 1882 to 1921. Was a friend to Blanche Bruce, serving as a pallbearer at the Senator’s funeral.  Was a major critic of Roscoe C. Bruce Sr., and led an aggressive and successful campaign to have Roscoe fired as Superintendent of the city’s Colored Schools.  Was critical of elite blacks who made compromises with whites.

42.  A. LAWRENCE LOWELL - President of Harvard University from 1909 until 1933. Born into a prominent New England family, he graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School, and established the school’s “house system”.  Created discriminatory housing policy that barred blacks from the freshman dormitories in Harvard Yard. Lost a public fight to keep Roscoe Bruce Jr. out of the all-white dormitories.

43. JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JR. – Philanthropist, powerful New York businessman and investor in real estate. Son of Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller.  Built the Dunbar Apartments complex in Harlem in 1926, which was the first housing development for the black middle class in New York City. Hired Roscoe C. Bruce and Clara B. Bruce to manage the Dunbar from 1927 to 1936.

44. CHARLES O. HEYDT – Chief real estate adviser to John D. Rockefeller Jr. and senior executive at Rockefeller’s office, which ran the Dunbar Apartments in Harlem.  Beginning in 1927, served as liaison between John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Roscoe C. Bruce Sr.

45. HARRIET SHADD BUTCHER – Washington family friend of Roscoe and Clara Bruce’s who later moved to New York City in 1920s. Served as a teacher in Washington’s colored schools, then later became Superintendent at Russell Sage Foundation in New York City. Helped Roscoe gain job at Rockefeller-owned Dunbar Apartments. Had many New York City “dates” (possibly a romance) with Roscoe while his wife, Clara, was living in Cambridge and attending law school.  Won a public and humiliating 1929 lawsuit against Roscoe after accusing him of not repaying her several thousand dollars.