On this day, the South Carolina General Assembly convened in Columbia and marked a major milestone during the Reconstruction era:

• Stephen A. Swails, a Civil War veteran and lawyer, was elected President Pro Tempore of the Senate—the first African American to hold that position.

• Samuel J. Lee, a prominent African American legislator and lawyer, was elected Speaker of the House.

• In a groundbreaking move, the Assembly appointed four Black men to the seven-member Board of Trustees of the University of South Carolina, making it one of the first major universities in the U.S. to be governed in part by African Americans.

These appointments reflected the political gains made by African Americans during Reconstruction and symbolized efforts to integrate leadership and education in the South—though many of these advances would be rolled back in the decades that followed.