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List of African-American U.S. state firsts

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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African Americans are a demographic minority in the United States. African-Americans' initial achievements in various fields historically establish a foothold, providing a precedent for more widespread cultural change. The shorthand phrase for this is "breaking the color barrier."[1][2]

In addition to major national- and international-level firsts, African-Americans have achieved firsts on a statewide basis.

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19th century

  • 1832
First governor of African descent in what is now the US: Pío Pico, an Afro-Mexican, was the last governor of Alta California before it was ceded to the US. Like all Californios, Pico automatically became a US citizen in 1848. He was elected to the Los Angeles Common Council in 1853, but he did not assume office.[citation needed]
  • 1868
First elected African-American lieutenant governor: Oscar Dunn, Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana
First 33 African-American legislators in Georgia: see Original 33
  • 1869
First African-American woman to earn a medical degree in New York State: Susan McKinney Steward
  • 1870
First African-American senator from Mississippi: Hiram R. Revels (also first in U.S.)
  • 1871
First African-American acting governor: Oscar James Dunn of Louisiana from May until August 9, 1871, when sitting Governor Warmoth was incapacitated and chose to recuperate in Mississippi. (see also: Douglas Wilder, 1990)
  • 1872
Second African-American acting governor of Louisiana: P. B. S. Pinchback (Also second in U.S.) (non-elected; see also Douglas Wilder, 1990) (Also first elected senator but was denied seat)[3][4]
  • 1873
First African-American Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives, and of any state legislature: John R. Lynch
First African American elected to the Tennessee General Assembly: Sampson W. Keeble
  • 1876
First African American elected to the Illinois General Assembly: John W. E. Thomas
  • 1878
First African American elected mayor in New York State (village president of Cleveland): Ned Sherman
  • 1879
First African American elected to the Wyoming Legislature: William Jefferson Hardin
First African American elected to the Ohio General Assembly: George Washington Williams
  • 1880
First African American elected to the Indiana General Assembly: James Sidney Hinton[5][6]
  • 1885
First African American elected to the Rhode Island General Assembly: Mahlon Van Horne
  • 1889
First African-American female principal in Massachusetts and the Northeast: Maria Louise Baldwin, supervising white faculty and a predominantly white student body at the Agassiz Grammar School in Cambridge (renamed the Maria L. Baldwin School in 2004).[7][8]
  • 1893
First African-American member elected to the Michigan House of Representatives: William Webb Ferguson
  • 1894
First African-American woman licensed to practice law in Illinois, and the third in the United States: Ida Platt
  • 1897
First African-American woman licensed to practice medicine in the U.S. state of Georgia: Eliza Ann Grier[9]
  • 1898
First African-American member elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives: John Francis Wheaton[10]
First woman to teach law in a chartered law school when she joined the faculty of her alma mater, Central Tennessee College of Law: Lutie Lytle[11]
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20th century

  • 1906
First African-American elected to the Wisconsin Legislature: Lucian H. Palmer[12][13]
  • 1917
First African American to enter the University of Oregon: Mabel Byrd[14]
  • 1918
First African-American elected to political office in California: Frederick Madison Roberts, California State Assembly[15]
First African-American student at Hamline University in Minnesota: Anna Arnold Hedgeman
  • 1920
First African-American elected to the Missouri legislature: Walthall Moore[16][17]
First African-American librarian hired by the New York Public Library (NYPL): Catherine Allen Latimer
  • 1922
First African American to graduate from Hamline University in Minnesota: Anna Arnold Hedgeman
  • 1924
First African-American elected to the Illinois Senate: Adelbert Roberts
  • 1926
First African-American woman to graduate from Bellevue Hospital Medical College, now NYU Grossman School of Medicine: May Edward Chinn
  • 1927
First African-American woman to receive a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School: Sadie T. M. Alexander
  • 1930
First African Americans elected as judges in the state of New York: James S. Watson and Charles E. Toney[18]
  • 1931
First African-American woman licensed as a pharmacist in the state of Iowa: Gwendolyn Wilson Fowler
  • 1937
First African American and first woman appointed as an assistant attorney general in Ohio: Helen Elsie Austin[19]
  • 1938
First African-American woman to be elected to the Pennsylvania General Assembly and to any state legislature: Crystal Bird Fauset
First African-American woman from the state of Florida to graduate from an accredited law school (Howard University Law School): Blanche Armwood
  • 1939
First African-American woman to own a cosmetology school in Iowa: Pauline Brown Humphrey[20]
  • 1948
First African American elected to the Delaware House of Representatives: William J. Winchester
First African-American female attorney admitted to the Alabama State Bar: Mahala Ashley Dickerson
  • 1949
First African American admitted to the University of Oklahoma College of Law: Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher
  • 1950
First African-American woman to be elected to the West Virginia Legislature: Elizabeth Simpson Drewry
First African-American woman to be elected to the Michigan Legislature: Charline White
First African-American woman to practice law in the state of Maryland: Juanita Jackson Mitchell[21]
  • 1951
Second African-American woman admitted to the Indiana bar: Mahala Ashley Dickerson
  • 1952
First African American to graduate from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences: Edith Irby Jones[22]
  • 1953
First African-American woman physician on the faculty of the University of Louisville School of Medicine: Grace Marilynn James
  • 1954
First African-American woman to hold a cabinet position in New York City: Anna Arnold Hedgeman
First African-American woman to become a licensed architect in the state of New York: Norma Merrick Sklarek
First African American to receive a law degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge: Ernest Nathan Morial
  • 1955
First African-American woman elected to the New York State Legislature: Bessie A. Buchanan
First African-American elected to the Maryland State Senate: Harry A. Cole
  • 1956
First African-American student to attend the University of Alabama: Autherine Lucy[23] Her expulsion from the institution later that year led to the university's President Oliver Carmichael's resignation.[24][25]
First African American to teach at college or university level in California: Betty Smith Williams.[26][27]
  • 1957
First African-American woman elected to the New Jersey Legislature: Madaline A. Williams
  • 1958
First African-American women elected to the Maryland General Assembly: Verda F. Welcome and Irma George Dixon
First African-American woman elected to the Illinois General Assembly: Floy Clements
First African American to graduate from the University of Maryland: Elaine J. Coates[28]
First African-American to graduate from the University of Kentucky: Doris Y. Wilkinson
  • 1959
First African American to graduate from the University of Maryland: Elaine J. Coates[29]
First African-American attorney in the state of Alaska: Mahala Ashley Dickerson
First African-American woman to serve as a judge in Pennsylvania: Juanita Kidd Stout
First African-American woman attorney to practice law in the state of Kentucky: Alberta Odell Jones
  • 1961
First African-American students to attend the University of Georgia: Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes[30]
  • 1962
First African-American attorney general of Massachusetts: Edward Brooke. Also first African American to hold Massachusetts statewide office, and first African-American attorney general of any state.
First African-American woman to become a licensed architect in the state of California: Norma Merrick Sklarek
  • 1963
First African American elected to the Delaware Senate: Herman Holloway
  • 1964
First African-American woman elected to the Indiana Legislature: Daisy Riley Lloyd
First African-American woman elected to the New York State Senate: Constance Baker Motley
  • 1965
First African-American woman elected to public office in Colorado (Denver Public Schools Board of Education: Rachel B. Noel
First African American to graduate from the University of Alabama: Vivian Malone Jones
  • 1966
First African-American woman elected to the Texas Legislature: Barbara Jordan
First African American known lesbian state legislator: Barbara Jordan
First African-American woman elected to the Georgia General Assembly: Grace Towns Hamilton
First African-American appointed to New York State Board of Regents: Kenneth Bancroft Clark
First African-American senator from Massachusetts: Edward Brooke. (Also first post-Reconstruction African American elected to the U.S. Senate and first African American elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote).
First African-American woman in the California Legislature: Yvonne Brathwaite Burke
First African-American woman elected to the Tennessee General Assembly: Dorothy Lavinia Brown
First African-American woman elected to the Arizona Legislature: Ethel Maynard
  • 1967
First African-American woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar: Marian Wright Edelman
First African-American woman elected to the Montana Legislature: Geraldine W. Travis
First African-American woman elected to the Baltimore City Council: Victorine Q. Adams
First African American elected to the Louisiana State Legislature since Reconstruction: Ernest Nathan Morial
  • 1968
First African-American elected to the Florida Legislature since Reconstruction: Joe Lang Kershaw
  • 1969
First African-American elected mayor of a Mississippi city since Reconstruction: Charles Evers, in Fayette, Mississippi[31]
First African-American woman to become a full-time faculty member at the University of Kentucky when she joined the Department of Sociology: Doris Y. Wilkinson
  • 1970
First African-Americans elected to the Alaska Legislature: Willard L. Bowman and Joshua Wright
First African-American woman elected to the Delaware General Assembly: Henrietta R. Johnson
First African-American woman elected to the Florida Legislature: Gwen Cherry
First African American elected as Juvenile Court judge in Louisiana: Ernest Nathan Morial
  • 1971
First African-American woman elected to the Washington Legislature: Peggy Maxie
First African-American woman to be elected to and serve in the Louisiana House of Representatives: Dorothy Mae Taylor
  • 1972
First African-American elected to the Wisconsin Senate: Monroe Swan
First African-American woman elected to the Colorado State House of Representatives: Arie Parks Taylor
  • 1973
First African-American woman elected to the Massachusetts General Court: Doris Bunte
First African-American woman elected to the Connecticut General Assembly: Margaret E. Morton
  • 1974
First African-American woman elected to the Michigan State Board of Education: Barbara Roberts Mason
First African-American man elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives: Henry Richardson
First African American elected to the Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal: Ernest Nathan Morial
  • 1975
First African-American woman elected to the South Carolina Legislature: Juanita Goggins
  • 1976
First African-American appointed as a judge in Federal District Court in Virginia: Robert H. Cooley III (1939–1998), appointed to the Eastern District[32]
First African-American mayor in New Mexico: Albert Johnson[33]
First African-American woman to be elected mayor in Mississippi: Unita Blackwell
  • 1977
First African-American to serve on the California Supreme Court: Wiley W. Manuel
First African-American speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives, and of any state legislature in the United States since Reconstruction: K. Leroy Irvis
First African-American woman elected to the Wisconsin Legislature: Marcia P. Coggs
First African-American woman elected to the Illinois Senate: Earlean Collins
First African American elected mayor of New Orleans: Ernest Nathan Morial
  • 1978
First African-American appointed to the office of Michigan State Treasurer: Loren E. Monroe[34]
First African-American woman elected to the Ohio Legislature: Helen Rankin
First African-American woman appointed as a judge in Maryland: Mabel Houze Hubbard
  • 1979
First African-American elected to a statewide office in Illinois: Roland Burris, office of Comptroller
First African-American elected to a statewide office in Wisconsin: Vel Phillips, office of Secretary of State
  • 1980
First African-American speaker of the California State Assembly: Willie Lewis Brown Jr.
First African-American woman to be elected as a circuit court judge in Michigan: Lucile A. Watts
  • 1981
First African-American woman elected to the Arkansas General Assembly: Irma Hunter Brown
First African-American elected to the Utah Senate: Terry Lee Williams
  • 1983
First African American to be elected president of the National Association of Women Lawyers: Mahala Ashley Dickerson
  • 1984
First African-American elected to a statewide office in Georgia: Robert Benham, Supreme Court of Georgia
First African-American woman to be elected to the Virginia General Assembly: Yvonne B. Miller
First African American to be sworn in as the New York City Police Commissioner: Benjamin Ward
First African-American woman to hold a Louisiana cabinet position (head of the state Department of Urban and Community Affairs): Dorothy Mae Taylor
  • 1985
First African-American woman to be elected to the Mississippi Legislature: Alyce Clarke
First African-American woman elected to the Oregon Legislature: Margaret Carter
First African-American woman appointed Administrator of the Boston Housing Authority: Doris Bunte[35]
  • 1986
First African-American women elected to the Oklahoma State Senate: Vicki Miles-LaGrange and Maxine Horner
First African-American woman elected as county commissioner in Payne County, Oklahoma: Bernice Mitchell
  • 1987
First African-American justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court: Robert D. Glass
  • 1988
First African-American elected to the Wyoming Legislature: Harriet Elizabeth Byrd
First African-American woman in the United States to serve on the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania: Juanita Kidd Stout
  • 1989
First African American elected student body president of Texas A&M University: Ashanti Johnson[36]
  • 1990
First African-American governor of Virginia: Douglas Wilder (also first elected governor in US; see also P. B. S. Pinchback, 1872)
First African-American woman elected to the Alaska Legislature: Bettye Davis
  • 1991
First African-American woman elected to the Louisiana State Senate: Diana Bajoie
First woman to serve as a California horse racing steward: Cheryl White
  • 1992
First African-American elected to a statewide office in Indiana: Pamela Carter, office of Attorney General
First African-American Minnesota Supreme Court justice: Alan Page
First African-American woman elected to Congress: Barbara-Rose Collins
First African American since the Reconstruction era elected to represent Florida in the United States Congress: Carrie Meek
  • 1993
First African-American senator from Illinois: Carol Moseley Braun. (Also first African-American woman elected to the United States Senate, the first African-American U.S. Senator for the Democratic Party, the first woman to defeat an incumbent U.S. Senator in an election, and the first female Senator from Illinois).
  • 1994
First African-American woman elected to the Nevada Legislature: Bernice Mathews
First African-American woman elected to the Delaware Senate: Margaret Rose Henry
First African-American woman to serve as a Colorado state senator: Gloria Tanner
  • 1996
First African-American woman elected to the Oregon Legislature: Avel Gordly
  • 1998
First African-American woman elected State Treasurer and first African-American woman elected statewide in Connecticut: Denise Nappier[37]
First African-American elected to office of Attorney General of Georgia: Thurbert E. Baker
First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Michigan: Beth A. Brown
  • 1999
First African-American woman justice of the Supreme Court of Florida: Peggy Quince
First African American to earn a doctoral degree in oceanography from Texas A&M University: Ashanti Johnson[38]
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21st century

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Official portrait of Kamala Harris, 2011
  • 2001
First African-American woman elected to the Minnesota Legislature: Neva Walker
  • 2002
First African-American lieutenant governor of Maryland and first elected to statewide office in Maryland: Michael Steele (see also: 2009)
  • 2003
First African-American woman to be crowned Miss Florida in the Miss America pageant's 81-year history: Ericka Dunlap
  • 2004
First African-American District Attorney in California: Kamala Harris (San Francisco) (see also: 2010, 2017)
First African-American Oklahoma Supreme Court justice: Tom Colbert
First African-American Wisconsin Supreme Court justice: Louis B. Butler
First African-American Auditor of Accounts of Vermont and first elected to statewide office in Vermont: Randy Brock
First African-American congresswoman elected in Wisconsin's history: Gwen Moore
  • 2006
First African-American elected governor of Massachusetts: Deval Patrick
First African-American lieutenant governor of New York: David Paterson
  • 2007
First African-American appointed State Treasurer of New Jersey: Michellene Davis
  • 2008
First African-American woman elected Speaker of the California State Assembly: Karen Bass
First African-American governor of New York State: David Paterson (elected as lieutenant governor, succeeded on resignation of previous governor)
First African-American women elected to the Nebraska Legislature: Tanya Cook and Brenda Council
First African-American woman to head any branch of Florida government when she assumed the office of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Florida: Peggy Quince
First African-American woman elected to the Kansas Senate: Oletha Faust-Goudeau
  • 2009
First bicameral state legislature to have both chambers headed simultaneously by African Americans: Peter Groff and Terrance Carroll of Colorado
First African-American woman elected to the Boston City Council: Ayanna Pressley
  • 2010
First African-American elected Attorney General of California: Kamala Harris (see also: 2004, 2017)
First African-American Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court: Roderick L. Ireland
First African-American elected to the Idaho Legislature: Cherie Buckner-Webb
First African-American woman elected to Congress from Alabama: Terri Sewell
First African-American woman elected to the Colorado State House of Representatives, representing District 42 from Aurora, Colorado: Rhonda Fields
First African-American woman to be attorney general in New Jersey: Paula Dow
  • 2012
First African-American elected to the Idaho Senate: Cherie Buckner-Webb
  • 2013
First African-American senator from South Carolina: Tim Scott[39] (Also the first African-American to serve both houses of the U.S. Congress.)
First African-American woman to be appointed to a seat on the New York Court of Appeals: Sheila Abdus-Salaam.
First African-American senator from New Jersey: Cory Booker
First African-American woman to serve as Chief Deputy Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia: Cynthia Eppes Hudson
  • 2014
First African-American senator elected from the South since Reconstruction: Tim Scott[40]
First African-American woman to represent New Jersey in the U.S. House of Representatives: Bonnie Watson Coleman
First African-American woman to be elected to the Illinois House of Representatives 103rd district: Carol Ammons
  • 2015
First African-American elected Speaker of the New York State Assembly: Carl Heastie[41]
First African-American Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky and first elected to statewide office in Kentucky: Jenean Hampton[42][43]
First African-American woman elected to the Utah Legislature: Sandra Hollins
  • 2016
First African-American woman to serve as superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the second-largest school district in the United States: Michelle King
  • 2017
First African-American United States Senator from California: Kamala Harris (see also: 2004, 2010)
First African-American elected lieutenant governor of New Jersey: Sheila Oliver[44]
First African-American out trans woman to be elected to public office in the United States: Andrea Jenkins
First African-American woman to serve as district attorney in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: Kelley B. Hodge
  • 2018
First female African-American major-party candidate for governor: Stacey Abrams, Georgia
First African-American elected Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Garlin Gilchrist[45]
First African-American Attorney General of New York: Letitia James[46]
First African-American and First woman elected Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates: Adrienne A. Jones
First African-American elected Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Juliana Stratton
First African-American woman elected to represent Connecticut in Congress: Jahana Hayes
First African-American woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts: Ayanna Pressley
  • 2019
First African-American elected Attorney General of Kentucky: Daniel Cameron
First Surgeon General for the State of California: Nadine Burke Harris[47]
First African-American woman elected to be chair of the Michigan Democratic Party: Lavora Barnes
  • 2020
First African-American congresswoman elected in Missouri's history: Cori Bush[48]
First African-American elected Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: Mark Robinson
  • 2021
First African-American senator from Georgia and first African-American Democratic Senator from the South: Raphael Warnock[49]
First African-American woman to serve on the Supreme Court of Missouri: Robin Ransom[50]
First African-American woman elected Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: Winsome Sears
First African-American woman to serve as Secretary of the State of Connecticut: Natalie Braswell[51]
First woman and third Black person to serve as the New York City Police Commissioner: Keechant Sewell[52]
First African-American woman to serve as United States federal judge for the Northern District of Mississippi: Debra M. Brown
  • 2022
First African-American elected Attorney General of Maryland: Anthony Brown
First African-American woman elected Attorney General of Massachusetts: Andrea Campbell
First African-American elected Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: Austin Davis
First African-American congresswoman elected in Pennsylvania's history: Summer Lee
First African-American elected governor of Maryland: Wes Moore
First African-American elected Speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives: Joe Tate
First African-American woman elected Secretary of State of Connecticut: Stephanie Thomas
First African-American elected Secretary of State of California: Shirley Weber
First African-American woman elected to an executive office in Delaware (the Delaware Auditor of Accounts): Lydia York
  • 2023
First African-American woman elected Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives: Joanna McClinton[53]
  • 2024
First African American elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Oregon: Janelle Bynum
  • 2025
First woman and first African American to represent Delaware in both chambers of Congress: Lisa Blunt Rochester
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