Benjamin F. Royal

{{short description|American politician}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}}

File:Benjamin F. Royal.jpg

Benjamin F. Royal was a state senator in Alabama during the Reconstruction era. He was elected to the state senate in 1868, and was the first African American to serve in the chamber.{{Cite web|url=http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-3740|title=Alabama Senate|website=Encyclopedia of Alabama}} He represented Bullock County and served for nine years.{{cite web |title=African-American Legislators in Reconstruction Alabama |url=https://archives.alabama.gov/afro/AfricanAmerican%20Legislators%20in%20Reconstruction%20Alabama1867.pdf |website=Alabama Department of Archives and History |access-date=28 February 2021 |archive-date=3 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220803140242/https://archives.alabama.gov/afro/AfricanAmerican%20Legislators%20in%20Reconstruction%20Alabama1867.pdf |url-status=dead }} He served as a Republican, and had stated that "he could as well be an infidel as to be anything else than a Republican".{{cite news |title=Senator B. F. Royal if Bullock |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72303201/senator-b-f-royal-if-bullock/ |access-date=28 February 2021 |work=The Weekly Huntsville Advocate |date=4 December 1873 |pages=2}} He was a Union League organizer.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8PCI20OHCz0C&q=%22benjamin+f.+royal%22+bullock&pg=PA107|title = Neither Carpetbaggers nor Scalawags: Black Officeholders During the Reconstruction of Alabama, 1867-1878|isbn = 9781588381897|last1 = Bailey|first1 = Richard|year = 2010}}

He was born to a white father and a mother who had been a slave.{{cite news |title=Race no barrier to those who love |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72302118/race-no-barrier-to-those-who-love/ |access-date=28 February 2021 |work=The Montgomery Advertiser |date=7 June 1995 |pages=15}} He married a woman named Harriet on February 9, 1868 in Bullock County. The couple had one daughter.

File:Members of the Alabama Reconstruction Senate on the steps of the Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama. 6286.jpg

In 1872, he and other Alabama state senators were photographed on the capitol steps. The photograph is held by the Alabama Department of Archives and History.{{cite web | url=https://spotonalabama.com/al-blogs-entertainment/801582/archivesfive-1872-alabama-senate-reconstruction.html | title=Archives/Five: 1872 Alabama Senate Reconstruction Photograph (Video) | Alabama Blogs & Entertainment }}