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Blanch Bruce was the first African American senator to serve a full term in office (1875-1881) and the first to receive votes for nomination at a national political convention. In the 1880 Republican Convention there was a push to nominate Bruce for the vice presidency. It ultimately fizzled and resulted in him only receiving 8 votes, but it was an incredibly chaotic convention that could have easily gone off on another course.
This is particularly interesting because the President that Bruce would have served with was James Garfield, who was assassinated in 1881, making VP Chester Arthur president. If Bruce had become VP and not butterflied away the assassination, he would have been president.
So this is all just background. Any theories on exactly how the chaos of 1880-1881 could have brought it about is also appreciated, but what I'm really interested in is what would a Blanche Bruce presidency have been like? How much difference would he have been able to make as a fluke president in that era. He was apparently a pretty outspoken advocate for not only African American rights but also those of Native Americans and the Chinese. He strongly opposed the Chinese Exclusion Act, so he could have vetoed that in 1882. The big question to me is whether he would have been able to stop the disenfranchisement of the African American population that was getting started right around the time he would have entered office. Would a president in that era have had the power to make a significant dent in what was mostly a state issue? Any other big changes Bruce might have been willing and able to make relative to OTL?