To start off, what I have learned about the reading is that many African Americans started to get more rights during 1869 and stopped discrimination. An important quote I found was ” as Hiram Revels became the first African American to serve in the U.S. Senate. Revels was an educator and minister, who had helped form regiments of African American soldiers during the Civil War.” This shows that during the Civil War, the Senate Revels was still helping the African American soldiers by educating them while he was serving the Mississippi State and was able to fill a vacant seat in the US Senate.