Benjamin F. Royal

Benjamin F. Royal was a state senator in Alabama during the Reconstruction era.
He was elected to the state senate in 1868, he was the first African American to serve in the chamber. He represented Bullock County and served for nine years. He served as a Republican and was had stated that "he could as well be an infidel as to be anything else than a Republican".
He was a Union League organizer.
He was born to a white father and a mother who had been a slave.