African Americans in Politics
African American History
African Americans in Politics
|
1836 |
Alexander Twilight becomes the first African American elected to public office when he wins a seat on the Vermont legislature; in 1845, William Leidesdorff becomes the second when he is named sub-consul to Yerba Buena, part of the Mexican territory that would later become San Francisco | |
|
1866 |
Edward G. Walker and Charles L. Mitchell become the first blacks elected to a U.S. state legislature (Massachusetts House of Representatives) | |
|
1868 |
John Willis Menard of Louisiana is the first African American to be elected to Congress, but Congressman James A. Garfield contests the election by claiming it is “too early to admit a Negro to the U.S. Congress”; the following year, Menard pleads his own case but is denied his elected position | |
|
1869 |
Ebenezer Don Carlos Bassett becomes the first official African American diplomat when President Grant names him minister of Haiti | |
|
1870 |
Mississippi legislature elects Hiram Rhoades Revels to be the first African American U.S. Senator, filling Jefferson Davis’s unexpired term | |
|
1872 |
Black delegates Robert B. Elliott, Joseph H. Rainey, and John R. Lynch deliver addresses at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia | |
| John R. Lynch wins election to the U.S. House of Representatives (R-Mississippi) | ||
|
1874 |
Blanche K. Bruce becomes the first African American to serve in the U.S. Senate (R-Mississippi) and serves as a chairman of the Select Committee to Investigate the Freeman’s Savings and Trust Company | |
|
1877 |
Under President Hayes, Frederick Douglass serves as the first African American U.S. Marshal of Washington, D.C. | |
|
1938 |
Crystal Bird Fauset becomes the first African American woman to be elected to a state legislature (Pennsylvania House of Representatives) | |
|
1953 |
Hulan Jack is sworn in as Manhattan borough president, becoming the first African American to hold a major elected position in a major U.S. city | |
|
1954 |
Charles Mahoney becomes the first African American delegate to serve on the U.S. delegation to the United Nations | |
|
1955 |
E. Frederic Morrow becomes the first African American to hold an executive position in the White House when President Eisenhower names him administrative officer for special projects | |
|
1958 |
Clifton R. Wharton Sr. becomes the first African American to head a U.S. embassy in Europe when he is confirmed as ambassador to Romania; three years later, he is named ambassador to Norway | |
|
1961 |
Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American to head a major U.S. government agency when he is chosen as administrator of the Housing and Home Finance Agency | |
|
1964 |
Constance Baker Motley is the first African American woman elected to the New York State Senate; she becomes Manhattan borough president in 1965 and, later, a federal district court judge | |
|
1966 |
Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American cabinet member (secretary of housing and urban development under President Johnson) | |
| Andrew Brimmer becomes the first African American governor of the Federal Reserve Board (nominated by President Johnson) | ||
|
1968 |
Shirley Chisholm is the first African American woman to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (D-New York) | |
|
1973 |
Maynard Jackson is elected mayor of Atlanta, becoming the first African American to be elected as mayor of a major Southern city | |
|
1977 |
Patricia R. Harris becomes the first African American woman to hold a position on the U.S. cabinet (secretary of housing and urban development under President Carter) | |
| Andrew Young becomes the first African American U.S. ambassador to the U.N. (nominated by President Carter) | ||
|
1983 |
Harold Washington becomes the first black mayor of Chicago | |
|
1984 |
Rev. Jesse Jackson mounts a high-profile campaign to become the Democratic candidate for president; the nomination eventually goes to Walter Mondale of Minnesota | |
|
1988 |
Colin Powell is the first African American to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff | |
|
1989 |
David Dinkins becomes the first black mayor of New York City | |
|
1990 |
Washington, D.C., voters elect lawyer Eleanor Holmes Norton as their nonvoting representative in the U.S. House of Representatives | |
|
1991 |
After controversial confirmation hearings, Clarence Thomas becomes the second African American ever to serve as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court | |
|
1992 |
Carol Moseley-Braun (D-Illinois) becomes the first African American woman elected to the U.S. Senate | |
|
2001 |
Newly elected President Bush appoints Gen. Colin Powell secretary of state and Dr. Condoleezza Rice national security advisor |
