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African-American officeholders (1900–1959)
List of American politicians From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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From 1900 to 1959 setbacks for African Americans occurred following the Democrat Party's restoration of white supremacy and political control across the South. These Redeemers, who undid Reconstruction era policies, retook control of local, state, and federal offices, restoring white supremacy across the South in government and civil life. African-Americans were largely barred from voting and almost entirely obstructed from public office in former Confederate states under the Jim Crow regime. The following is a list of African-American holders of public office from 1900 to 1959
The era also saw the appointment or election of the first African-American women to serve in elected public office. 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. African-American women were also elected or appointed to state legislatures in Alaska, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Maryland, New Jersey and New York.
The number of African American officeholders finally saw dramatic increases following the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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Federal office
House of Representatives
- Oscar Stanton De Priest (1929-1953) from Chicago, Illinois
- Arthur Wergs Mitchell (1935-1943) from Chicago, Illinois
- William L. Dawson (1943-1970) from Chicago, Illinois
- Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (1945-1971) from Chicago, Illinois
- Charles Diggs (1955-1980) from New York City's Harlem neighborhood
- Robert N. C. Nix Sr. (1958-1979) from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
State office
Alaska
House
- Blanche McSmith (1959)
California
Assembly
- Frederick Madison Roberts (1918) representing Los Angeles, California
- Augustus Hawkins (1934-1960) representing Los Angeles, California
Colorado
Senate
- George L. Brown (1957), representing Denver M, Colorado. He also served as Lieutenant Governor
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[dubious – discuss]
- Hercules Wilson[2][3] (1882-1885)[dubious – discuss]
- Anthony Wilson, state representative from Camden County, Georgia (1884-1888?)[3][4] (?-1893)[dubious – discuss]
- Frasier / Frazier, first name unknown, state representative from Liberty County, Georgia[3][dubious – discuss]
- 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)
- James Y. Carter (1954)
- 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)
Local offices
- 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)
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 Jr. (1936), a lawyer in Louisville[5]
Maryland
Senate
- Harry A. Cole (1955-1966)
House
- Emory Cole (1955)
- Truly Hatchett (1955)
- Verda Welcome (1958 )
- Irma George Dixon (1958 )
Local offices
- Walter T. McGuinn, lawyer who served on Baltimore's city council from 1919-1923 and 1927-1931[6]
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)
Local office
- William T. Patrick, Detroit City Council (1957-1963)
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)
Local office
- Adam Clayton Powell Jr., New York City Council (1942-1945)
- Benjamin J. Davis Jr., New York City Council (1945-1949)
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)[7][8]
- 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)
Local office
- Thomas W. Fleming, Member, Cleveland City Council
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 M. Mintess (1943-1944, 1947–1952)
- Thomas P. Trent (1943-1946, 1950–1951)
- Lee P. Myhan (1945-1946)
- J. Thompson Pettigrew (1945-1946, 1949–1956)
- William A. Upshur (1947-1948)
- Garfield B. Harris (1953-1954)
- 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[9]
- Leroy J. Simmons (1944)
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See also
References
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