The following is a list of African-American holders of public office from 1900 to 1959. This period saw setbacks for African Americans following the Reconstruction era after "Redeemer" Democrats retook control of the South and restored white supremacy in government. African-Americans were largely barred from voting and almost entirely obstructed from public office in former Confederate states under the Jim Crow regime. The number of African American officeholders would dramatically increase following the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Notably, Minnie Buckingham Harper became the first African-American woman to serve in a state legislature when she was appointed in 1928 to serve out the remainder of her husband's term in the West Virginia House of Delegates. Crystal Bird Fauset was the first Black woman elected to a legislature when was elected to the Pennsylvania House in 1938.
Federal office
House of Representatives
- Oscar Stanton De Priest (1929-1953)
- Arthur Wergs Mitchell (1935-1943)
- William L. Dawson (1943-1970)
- Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (1945-1971)
- Charles Diggs (1955-1980)
- Robert N. C. Nix Sr. (1958-1979)
State office
Alaska
House
- Blanche McSmith (1959)
California
Assembly
- Frederick Madison Roberts (1918)
- Augustus Hawkins (1934-1960)
Colorado
Senate
- George L. Brown (1957)
House
- George L. Brown (1955)
Connecticut
House
- Wilfred X. Johnson (1958), the Wilfred X. Johnson House where he lived is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
Delaware
House
- William J. Winchester (1948)
Georgia
House
- H. F. McKay, state representative from Liberty County (1900-1901) [1]
- Lectured Crawford, state representative from McIntosh County (1886-1887, 1890–1891, 1900–1901)
- W. H. Rogers, state representative from McIntosh County (1902-1908)
- Amos Rogers
- Hercules Wilson[2][3]
- Anthony Wilson, state representative from Camden County, Georgia (1884-1888?)[3][4]
- Frasier, first name unknown, state representative from Liberty County, Georgia[3]
- Samuel A. McIvor, state representative for Liberty County, Georgia[4]
Illinois
Senate
- Adelbert H. Roberts (1924)
- William E. King (1934)
- William A. Wallace (1938)
- Christopher C. Wimbish (1942)
- Fred J. Smith (1954)
House
- John G. Jones (1900)
- Edward D. Green (1904)
- Alexander Lane (1907)
- Robert R. Jackson (1912)
- Sheadrick B. Turner (1914)
- Benjamin H. Lucas (1916)
- Warren B. Douglass (1918)
- George T. Kersey (1922)
- Charles A. Griffin (1924)
- William J. Warfield (1928)
- Charles J. Jenkins (1930)
- Harris B. Gaines (1930)
- Aubrey H. Smith (1934)
- Ernest A. Greene (1936)
- Richard A. Harewood (1936)
- Andrew A. Torrence (1938)
- Dudley S. Martin (1940)
- Corneal A. Davis (1943)
- Christopher C. Wimbish (1943)
- Charles T. Sykes (1944)
- Edward A. Welters (1944)
- Kenneth E. Wilson (1954)
- William H. Robinson (1954)
- J. Horace Gardner (1956)
- Elwood Graham (1956)
- Floy Clements (1958)
- Cecil A. Partee (1957)
- Charles F. Armstrong (1957)
Indiana
Senate
- Robert Brokenburr (1940)
House
- Harry H. Richardson (1932)
- Robert L. Stanton (1932)
- Marshall A. Talley (1932)
- James S. Hunter (1940)
- Jesse L. Dickinson (1942, 1944)
- Wilbur H. Grant (1942)
Kansas
House
- W. M. Blount (1929-1930, 1933–1936)
- William H. Towers (1937-1939)
Kentucky
House
- Charles W. Anderson (1936)
Maryland
Senate
- Harry A. Cole (1955-1966)
House
- Emory Cole (1955)
- Truly Hatchett (1955)
- Verda Welcome (1958 )
- Irma George Dixon (1958 )
Massachusetts
House
- William H. Lewis (1902)
Michigan
Senate
- Charles A. Roxborough (1930)
- Charles Diggs Sr. (1937-1944)
- Cora Brown (1952)
House
- James W. Ames (1901)
- Horace A. White (1941)
- Charline White (1950)
Missouri
House
- Walthall M. Moore (1921)
- Edwin F. Kenswil (1943)
- William A. Massingale (1947-1948)
- Walter V. Lay (1949-1954)
- James Troupe Sr. (1954)
Nebraska
Senate, then Unicameral Legislature
- John Adams Jr. (1937)
House (prior to 1937)
- T. L. Barnett (1924)
- A. A. McMillan (1924)
- John Andrew Singleton (1927)
- Johnny Owen (1933)
- John Adams Jr. (1935)
New Jersey
General Assembly
- Walter G. Alexander (1920)
- Oliver Randolph (1922)
- James L. Baxter (1927)
- Frank S. Hargrave (1930-1931, 1933–1935, 1937-?, 1938–1942)
- J. Mercer Burrell (1933-1937)
- Guy R. Moorehead (1937-)
- James Otto Hill (1943-1947)
- Madaline A. Williams (1957)
New York
Senate
- Julius A. Archibald (1953)
State Assembly
- Edward A. Johnson (1917)
- John C. Hawkins (1919)
- Henri W. Shields (1922)
- Pope B. Billups (1925)
- Lamar Perkins (1930)
- Francis E. Rivers (1930)
- James E. Stevens (1930)
- William T. Andrews (1934)
- Robert W. Justice (1935)
- Daniel Burrows (1938)
- Hulan E. Jack (1940)
- William E. Prince (1944)
- Bessie A. Buchanan (1955)
Ohio
Senate
House
- George W. Hayes (1901)
- H. T. Eubanks (1904)
- A. Lee Beaty (1919)
- Henry Higgins (1919)
- Harry E. Davis (1921)
- E. W. B. Curry (1924)[5][6]
- Perry B. Jackson (1928)
- Chester K. Gillespie (1933-1935, 1943–1945)
- Richard P. McClain (1934)
- David D. Turpeau (1940)
- Sandy F. Ray (1942)
- Jacob Ashburn Sr. (1944)
Oklahoma
House
- A. C. Hamlin (1908)
Pennsylvania
House
- Harry W. Bass (1911)
- John C. Asbury (1920)
- Andrew F. Stephens (1920)
- William H. Fuller (1924)
- Samuel B. Hart (1924)
- Walter E. Tucker (1930)
- John William Harris (1932)
- Homer S. Brown (1934)
- Richard A. Cooper (1934)
- Walter K. Jackson (!934)
- Hobson R. Reynolds (1935-1936, 1939–1940)
- Marshall L. Shephard (1935-1938, 1941–1942)
- William A. Allmond (1936)
- John H. Brigerman (1937-1938, 1943–1944)
- Samuel D. Holmes (1936)
- Edwin F. Thompson (1936)
- E. Washington Rhodes (1938)
- Crystal Bird Fauset (1938)
- Ralph T. Jefferson (1940)
- Edward C. Young (1940)
- Dennie W. Hoggard (1943-1946, 1949–1954)
- Lewis W. Mintess (1943-1944, 1947–1952)
- Thomas P. Trent (1943-1946, 1950–1951)
- Lee P. Myhan (1945-1946)
- J. Thompson Pettigrew (1945-1946, 1949–1956)
- Susie Monroe (1949-1968)
Vermont
House
- William J. Anderson (1944)
Washington
House
- John H. Ryan (1933)
- Charles Stokes
West Virginia
House
- James M. Ellis (1902)
- Howard Railey (1904)
- Ebenezer Howard Harper (1917)
- Harry J. Capehart (1919–1925)
- Minnie Buckingham Harper (1928, appointed)
Wisconsin
Assembly
- Lucian H. Palmer (1906)
- Cleveland Moland Colbert (1942), elected but decertified after recount[7]
- Leroy J. Simmons (1944)
Local office
Illinois
- Oscar Stanton De Priest, Cook County Board of Commissioners (1904–1908), Chicago City Council (1915–1917, 1943–1947)
- Louis B. Anderson, Chicago City Council (1923-1933)
- William L. Dawson, Chicago City Council (1933-1939)
- Earl B. Dickerson, Chicago City Council (1939-1943)
- Claude Holman, Chicago City Council (1955-1973)
Michigan
- William T. Patrick, Detroit City Council (1957-1963)
New York
- Adam Clayton Powell Jr., New York City Council (1942-1945)
- Benjamin J. Davis Jr., New York City Council (1945-1949)
Ohio
- Thomas W. Fleming, Member, Cleveland City Council
References
- ^ https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn89053488/1900-10-25/ed-1/seq-4/#date1=01%2F01%2F1885¬text=&date2=12%2F31%2F1902&words=Crawford+Lectured&searchType=advanced&sequence=0&index=5&proxdistance=2&sort=date_asc&rows=12&ortext=&proxtext=%22lectured+crawford%22&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&andtext=&page=4
- ^ Legare, John Girardeau (July 1, 2012). The Darien Journal of John Girardeau Legare, Ricegrower. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 9780820343105 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b c "Georgia's Negro Legislators". Savannah Morning News. 3 October 1885. p. 5. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
- ^ a b Cook Bell, Karen (24 September 2018). "Black Politics in Lowcountry Georgia after the Civil War | Starting Points". Starting Points. Arizona State University. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
- ^ Meyer, Mary (1993-02-19). "Researcher tracking down story of Delaware's first black teacher". The Delaware Gazette. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-09-21.
- ^ Middleton, Evan P. (1917). History of Champaign County, Ohio: Its People, Industries and Institutions. B.F. Bowen. pp. 579–581.
- ^ "Fight Over Assembly Seat". Newspapers.com. The Capital Times. January 14, 1943. p. 10. ISSN 0749-4068. Retrieved 2022-11-01.