John Mercer Langston

 (December 14, 1829 – November 15, 1897)
 
An American abolitionist attorney, educator, and political activist. He was the first dean of the law school at Howard University and helped create the department. He was the first president of now Virginia State University. In 1888 he was the first black elected to the U.S. Congress from Virginia. His early career was based in Ohio, where he began his lifelong work for black freedom, education, equal rights and suffrage. In 1855 he was one of the first black people in the United States elected to puplic office when elected town clerk in Ohio. Langston is the great-uncle of renowned poet Langston Hughes. It took 153 years to get from Langston to Obama.