From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
African Americans have served in state legislatures, with several interruptions, since Alexander Twilight was elected to the Vermont lower house in 1836. Representation increased during the Reconstruction era , plummeted during the ensuing decades, and rose again during the 1950s and 1960s with the civil rights movement . The last state to elect its first African-American state legislator was North Dakota in 2022.
Legislator
Image
Legislative achievement
Seat held
Took office
Left office
Party
Ref
Mathias de Sousa
1st African-American man elected to any state legislature
General Assembly Upper House
1641
?
N/A
[ 1]
John R. Lynch
1st African-American man to serve as speaker of any state lower house
Mississippi's 6th District (Created by State Legislature)
1873
1883
Republican
Minnie Buckingham Harper
1st African-American woman to serve in any state legislature
Rep. from Keystone, West Virginia
1928
1930
Crystal Bird Fauset
1st African-American woman elected to any state legislature
18th District of Pennsylvania
1938
1940
Democratic
Cora Brown
1st African-American woman elected (rather than appointed to a state senate
Michigan State Senate from 2nd & 3rd Distrist
1953
1956
Democratic
William Owen Bush
1st African-American man elected to any state Legislature on the West Cost
First sitting of the Washington House of Representatives
1889
1895
Republican
Karen Bass
1st African-American woman to serve as speaker of any state lower house
California State Assembly from the 47th District
2004
2010
Democratic
Andrea Stewart-Cousins
1st African-American woman to serve as speaker of any state upper house
New York Senate from the 35th District
2007
2019–Present
Peter Groff
1st bicameral state legislature to have both chambers headed simultaneously by African Americans
Colorado Senate from the 33rd District
2003
2009
Democratic
Terrance Carroll
Colorado Speaker of the House, 7th District
2009/2003
2011
first African-American man elected to the Florida House of Representatives since Reconstruction: Joe Lang Kershaw (1968)
first African-American woman elected to the Florida House of Representatives : Gwen Cherry (1970)
first African-American woman elected to the Florida Senate : Carrie Meek (1980)
first African-American man elected to the Florida Senate : Arnett E. Girardeau (1982)
first 33 African-American legislators in Georgia : see Original 33 (1868)
first African-American woman elected to the Georgia House of Representatives : Grace Towns Hamilton (1966)
first African-American woman elected to the Georgia State Senate : Nadine Thomas (1992)
first African-American man elected to the Georgia State Senate since Reconstruction: Leroy Johnson (1963)
first African-American man to serve as Majority Leader of the Georgia State Senate : Charles Walker (1996)
first African-American man elected to the Hawaii House of Representatives and Hawaii Senate : Charles Campbell (1976; 1978)
first African-American woman elected to the Hawaii House of Representatives : Helene Hale (2000)
first African-American woman elected to the Idaho House of Representatives : Cherie Buckner-Webb (2010)
first African-American woman elected to the Idaho Senate : Cherie Buckner-Webb (2012)
first African-American man elected to the Idaho House of Representatives : Chris Mathias (2020)
first African-American man elected to the Illinois General Assembly : John W. E. Thomas (1876)
first African-American man elected to the Illinois Senate : Adelbert H. Roberts (1924)
first African-American woman elected to the Illinois General Assembly : Floy Clements (1958)
first African-American woman elected to the Illinois Senate : Earlean Collins (1977)
first African-American man elected to the Indiana House of Representatives : James Sidney Hinton (1880)[ 3] [ 4]
first African-American man elected to the Indiana Senate : Robert Brokenburr (1940)
first African-American woman elected to the Indiana House of Representatives : Daisy Riley Lloyd (1964)
first African-American woman elected to the Indiana Senate : Julia Carson (1977)
first African-American woman elected to the Iowa House of Representatives : Willie Stevenson Glanton (1964)
first African-American man elected to the Iowa House of Representatives : James H. Jackson (1964)
first African American elected to the Iowa Senate : Thomas Mann (1983)[ 6]
first African-American man elected to the Kansas House of Representatives : Alfred Fairfax (1888)[ 7]
first African-American woman elected to the Kansas House of Representatives : Barbara Ballard (1993)
first African-American men elected to the Kansas Senate : Curtis McClinton Sr. and George Haley (1960)
first African-American woman elected to the Kansas Senate : Oletha Faust-Goudeau (2008)
first African-American man elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives : Charles W. Anderson (1936)
first African-American woman elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives : Amelia Tucker (1961)
first African-American (and first woman) elected to the Kentucky Senate : Georgia Davis Powers (1968)
first African-American man elected to the Kentucky Senate : Gerald Neal (1988)
first African-American man elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives since Reconstruction: Ernest Nathan Morial (1969)[ 8]
first African-American woman elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives : Dorothy Mae Taylor (1971)
first African-American man elected to the Louisiana Senate since Reconstruction: Sidney Barthelemy (1976)[ 8]
first African-American woman elected to the Louisiana Senate : Diana Bajoie (1991)
first African-American man elected to the Maine House of Representatives : Gerald Talbot (1972)
first African-American man elected to the Maine Senate : John Jenkins (1996)
first African-American woman elected to the Maine House of Representatives: Rachel Talbot Ross (2016)
first African-American woman elected to the Maine Senate: Jill Duson (2022)
first African-American man elected to the Maryland Assembly : Mathias de Sousa (1641)
first African-American man elected to the Maryland Senate : Harry A. Cole (1954)
first African-American woman elected to the Maryland House of Delegates : Irma George Dixon (1958)
first African-American woman elected to the Maryland Senate : Verda F. Welcome (1958)
first African-American men elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives : Edward G. Walker and Charles Lewis Mitchell (1866)
first African-American woman elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives : Doris Bunte (1973)
first African-American man elected to the Massachusetts Senate : Bill Owens (1975)
first African-American woman elected to the Massachusetts Senate : Dianne Wilkerson (1993)
first African-American man elected to Michigan House of Representatives : William Webb Ferguson (1893)
first African-American man elected to Michigan Senate : Charles A. Roxborough (1930)
first African-American woman elected to the Michigan House of Representatives : Charline White (1950)
first African-American woman elected to Michigan Senate : Cora Brown (1952)
first African-American man elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives : John Francis Wheaton (1898)
first African-American man elected to the Minnesota Senate : B. Robert Lewis (1972)
first African-American woman elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives : Neva Walker (2001)
first African-American women elected to the Minnesota Senate : Erin Maye Quade , Zaynab Mohamed , and Clare Oumou Verbeten (2022)
first African-American man elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives : John R. Lynch (1869)
first African-American Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives : John R. Lynch (1873)
first African-American man elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives since Reconstruction: Robert G. Clark Jr. (1967)
first African-American man elected to the Mississippi State Senate since Reconstruction: Arthur Tate (1979)
first African-American woman elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives : Alyce Clarke (1985)
first African-American woman elected to the Mississippi State Senate : Alice Harden (1988)
first African-American man elected to the Missouri House of Representatives : Walthall M. Moore (1921)
first African-American woman elected to the Missouri House of Representatives : DeVerne Lee Calloway (1962)
first African-American man elected to the Missouri Senate : Theodore McNeal (1960)
first African-American woman elected to the Missouri Senate : Gwen B. Giles (1977)
first African-American woman elected to the Montana Legislature : Geraldine W. Travis (1974)[ 9]
first African-American man elected to the former Nebraska House of Representatives : Matthew Ricketts (1893)
first African-American man elected to the unicameral Nebraska Legislature : John Adams Jr. (1937)
first African-American woman appointed to the Nebraska Legislature : JoAnn Maxey (1977)
first African-American women elected to the Nebraska Legislature : Tanya Cook and Brenda Council (2009)
first African-American man elected to the Nevada Assembly : Woodrow Wilson (1966)
first African-American man elected to the Nevada Senate : Joe Neal (1972)
first African-American woman elected to the Nevada Senate : Bernice Mathews (1994)
first African-American woman elected to the Nevada Assembly : Dina Neal (2011)
first African American elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives : Henry B. Richardson (1974)
first African American elected to the New Hampshire Senate : Melanie Levesque (2018)
first African-American man elected to the New Jersey General Assembly : Walter G. Alexander I (1920)
first African-American woman elected to the New Jersey General Assembly : Madaline A. Williams (1957)[ 10]
first African-American man elected to the New Jersey Senate : Hutchins F. Inge (1965)
first African-American woman elected to the New Jersey Senate : Wynona Lipman (1971)[ 11]
first African-American man to serve as Speaker of the General Assembly: Walter G. Alexander I (1921)
first African-American man elected as Speaker of the General Assembly: S. Howard Woodson (1974)[ 12]
first African-American man elected to the New Mexico House of Representatives : Lenton Malry (1969)
first African-American woman elected to the New Mexico House of Representatives : Sheryl Williams Stapleton (1995)
first African-American man elected to the New Mexico Senate : Harold Pope Jr. (2020)
first African-American man elected to the New York State Assembly : Edward A. Johnson (1917)
first African-American man elected to the New York State Senate : Julius A. Archibald (1953)
first African-American woman elected to the New York State Assembly : Bessie A. Buchanan (1955)
first African-American woman elected to the New York State Senate : Constance Baker Motley (1964)
first African-American man elected Speaker of the New York State Assembly : Carl Heastie [ 13] (2015)
first African-American man elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives : Hanson T. Hughes (1866)
first African-American men elected to the North Carolina Senate : John R. Bryant (1866)
first African-American woman to serve in the North Carolina House of Representatives : Annie Brown Kennedy (appointed, 1979; elected, 1982)
first African-American woman to serve in the North Carolina Senate : Jeanne Hopkins Lucas (1993, appointed and re-elected)
first African-American woman elected to the North Dakota House of Representatives : Hamida Dakane (2022)
first African-American man elected to the Ohio House of Representatives : George Washington Williams (1880)
first African-American man elected to the Ohio Senate : John Patterson Green (1892)
first African-American woman elected to the Ohio House of Representatives : Helen Rankin (1978)
first African-American woman elected to the Ohio Senate : Rhine McLin (1994)
first African-American man elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives : A. C. Hamlin (1908)
first African-American man elected to the Oklahoma Senate : E. Melvin Porter (1965)
first African-American woman elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives : Hannah Atkins (1968)
first African-American woman elected to the Oklahoma Senate : Maxine Horner (1987)
first African-American Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives : T. W. Shannon (2013)
first African-American man elected to the Oregon House of Representatives : William McCoy (1972)
first African-American man appointed to the Oregon Senate: William McCoy (circa 1975, appointed and re-elected)
first African-American woman elected to the Oregon House of Representatives : Margaret Carter (1985)
first African-American woman elected to the Oregon Senate : Avel Gordly (1996)
first African-American man elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives : Harry W. Bass (1911)
first African-American woman elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives : Crystal Bird Fauset (1938)
first African-American man elected to the Pennsylvania State Senate : Herbert Arlene (1967)
first African-American woman elected to the Pennsylvania State Senate : Roxanne Jones (1985)
first African-American speaker of the Pennsylvania House : K. Leroy Irvis (1977)
first African-American woman speaker of the Pennsylvania House : Joanna McClinton (2023)
first African American elected to the Rhode Island House of Representatives : Mahlon Van Horne (1885)
first African-American man elected to the Rhode Island Senate : Charles D. Walton (1983)
first African-American woman elected to the Rhode Island House of Representatives : Maria Lopes (1989)
first African-American men elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives since Reconstruction: Herbert Fielding , James Felder , and I. S. Levy Johnson (1970)
first African-American woman elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives : Juanita Goggins (1975)
first African-American man elected to the South Carolina Senate since Reconstruction: Isaiah DeQuincey Newman (1983)
first African-American woman elected to the South Carolina Senate : Maggie Wallace Glover (1992)
first African-American man elected to the South Dakota House of Representatives : Tony Randolph (2018)
first African-American man elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives : Sampson W. Keeble (1873)
first African-American man elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives since Reconstruction : Archie Walter Willis Jr. (1964)
first African-American woman elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives : Dorothy Lavinia Brown (1966)
first African-American men elected to the Tennessee Senate : Avon Williams and J. O. Patterson Jr. (1969)
first African-American woman elected to the Tennessee Senate : Thelma Harper (1991)
first African-American men elected to the Texas Senate : George T. Ruby and Matthew Gaines (1869)
first African-American men elected to the Texas House of Representatives : 14 men (1869)
first African-American woman elected to the Texas Senate : Barbara Jordan (1966)
first African-American men elected to the Texas House of Representatives since Reconstruction : Mickey Leland and Craig Washington (1972)
first African-American women elected to the Texas House of Representatives : Senfronia Thompson and Eddie Bernice Johnson (1973)
first African-American man elected to the Utah House of Representatives : Robert Harris (1976)
first African-American man elected to the Utah Senate : Terry Lee Williams (1983)
first African-American woman elected to the Utah House of Representatives : Sandra Hollins (2015)
first African-American man elected to Vermont House of Representatives : Alexander Twilight (1836)
first African-American woman elected to Vermont House of Representatives : Louvenia Bright (1988)[ 14] [ 15]
first African-American man elected to the Vermont Senate : Julius D. Canns (1992)
first 24 African-American men elected to the Virginia House of Delegates : William H. Brisby , Henry Cox , Isaac Edmundson , Ballard T. Edwards , George Fayerman , Ross Hamilton , Charles E. Hodges , John Q. Hodges , Benjamin F. Jones , Peter K. Jones , Robert G. W. Jones , James F. Lipscomb, J. B. Miller Jr. , Peter G. Morgan , F. S. Norton , Robert Norton , Alexander Owen , Caesar Perkins , Fountain M. Perkins , William H. Ragsdale , George Lewis Seaton , William N. Stevens , John Watson , and Ellis Wilson (1869)[ 16] [ 17]
first African-American men elected to the Virginia Senate : James W. D. Bland , Isaiah L. Lyons , William P. Moseley , Frank Moss , John Robinson , and George Teamoh (1869)[ 18] [ 19]
first African-American man elected to the Virginia House of Delegates since Reconstruction : William Ferguson Reid (1968)
first African-American man elected to the Virginia Senate since Reconstruction : Douglas Wilder (1970)
first African-American woman elected to the Virginia Senate : Yvonne B. Miller (1988)[ 20]
first African-American woman elected to the Virginia House of Delegates : Yvonne B. Miller (1984)
first African-American man elected to the Washington State Legislature : William Owen Bush (1889)
first African-American man elected to the Washington State Senate : John Henry Ryan (1933)[ 21]
first African-American woman appointed to the Washington State Legislature : Marjorie Pitter King (1965)[ 22]
first African-American woman elected to the Washington Legislature : Peggy Maxie (1971)
first African-American woman appointed to the Washington State Senate : Rosa Franklin (1993)
first African-American man elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly : Lucian H. Palmer (1906)
first African-American woman elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly : Marcia P. Coggs (1977)
first African-American man elected to the Wisconsin Senate : Monroe Swan (1973)
first African-American woman elected to the Wisconsin Senate : Gwen Moore (1993)
first African-American man elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates : Christopher Payne (1886)
first African-American woman to serve in the West Virginia House of Delegates : Minnie Buckingham Harper (appointed) (1928)
first African-American woman elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates : Elizabeth Simpson Drewry (1950)
first African-American woman elected to the West Virginia Senate : Marie Redd (1998)
first African-American man to serve in the West Virginia Senate : Owens Brown (appointed) (2021)
first African-American man elected to the Wyoming Legislature : William Jefferson Hardin (1879)
first African-American woman elected to the Wyoming Legislature : Harriet Elizabeth Byrd (1988)
First speakers and caucus leaders [ edit ]
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Pennsylvania
Tennessee
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^ "Exploring Maryland's Roots: Library: Mathias de Sousa" . mdroots.thinkport.org . Retrieved 2020-10-12 .
^ Parry, Janine A.; Miller, William H. (2006). " "The Great Negro State of the Country?": Black Legislators in Arkansas: 1973-2000" . Journal of Black Studies . 36 (6): 836. ISSN 0021-9347 .
^ Gregg, John. "Standing with Black trailblazer James S. Hinton" . Indianapolisrecorder.com . Retrieved 25 October 2017 .
^ Indiana Black History Public Art Legacy Project Archived 2013-03-16 at the Wayback Machine
^ Belin, Laura (2022-11-17). "Elections bring more diversity to Iowa Legislature" . Iowa Capital Dispatch . Retrieved 2023-11-27 .
^ As of 2022, no African-American woman has served in the Iowa Senate.[ 5]
^ "Alfred Fairfax: First African American Kansas state legislator" . Kansas Historical Society. Retrieved 2019-02-22 .
^ Jump up to: a b "LLBC" . house.louisiana.gov . Retrieved 2020-11-14 .
^ Robison, Kenneth (2018-08-15). "Geraldine Washington Travis (1931- )" . Retrieved 2020-01-10 .
^ Wildstein, David . "Trailblazer: Assemblywoman Madaline Williams" , New Jersey Globe , January 18, 2021. Accessed November 30, 2023. "Madaline Williams (1894-1968) was the first Black woman to serve in the New Jersey Legislature. She was elected to the State Assembly in 1957 and re-elected in 1959."
^ "Wynona Lipman, 67, Veteran In the New Jersey State Senate" , The New York Times , May 12, 1999. Accessed November 30, 2023. "State Senator Wynona M. Lipman, who in 1971 became the first African-American woman to be elected to the New Jersey Senate, died Sunday at her home in Newark."
^ "Celebrating Black History In Trenton: Rev. Dr. Samuel Howard Woodson Jr." , The Trentonian , February 24, 2023. Accessed November 30, 2023. "Today we will be celebrating the life and accomplishments of Rev. Dr. S. Howard Woodson Jr. The former Shiloh Baptist church pastor was also the first African-American Speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly."
^ "New York State Assembly - Carl E. Heastie" . assembly.state.ny.us . Retrieved 25 October 2017 .
^ No African-American woman has ever served in the Vermont Senate . The first woman of color to serve in the Senate is Kesha Ram , elected in 2020.
^ "Senator Kesha Ram Hinsdale" . legislature.vermont.gov . Retrieved 2023-11-30 .
^ "African American Legislators in Virginia (1867–1899)" . EncyclopediaVirginia.org . Retrieved 11 February 2022 .
^ "African American Legislators in Virginia" . MLKCommission.dls.Virginia.gov . Retrieved 11 February 2022 .
^ "African American Legislators in Virginia (1867–1899)" . EncyclopediaVirginia.org . Retrieved 11 February 2022 .
^ "African American Legislators in Virginia" . MLKCommission.dls.Virginia.gov . Retrieved 11 February 2022 .
^ "The First Black Woman Elected to Virginia's House & Senate was HBCU Educated and a member of Zeta!" . TheVABlackLifestyleMagazine.com . Retrieved 11 February 2022 .
^ Kershner, Kate (2011-06-13). "Ryan, John Henry (1865-1943) and Ella (1866-?)" . HistoryLink .
^ "African Americans in the Washington State Legislature" . Washington State Library, Office of the Secretary of State .
^ "Cecil Partee. Memoir" (PDF) . Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-09-27.
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