List of African-American officeholders (1900-1959)
The following is a list of African-American holders of public office from 1900 to 1959. This period was a low point for African American elected officials, especially as African-Americans were almost entirely barred 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.
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[]
- (1943)
- George L. Brown (1955)
Connecticut[]
House[]
- (1958), the Wilfred X. Johnson House where he lived is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
Delaware[]
House[]
- (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)
- , state representative from McIntosh County (1902-1908)
Illinois[]
Senate[]
- Adelbert H. Roberts (1924)
- (1934)
- William A. Wallace (1938)
- Christopher C. Wimbish (1942)
- (1954)
House[]
- (1900)
- (1904)
- Alexander Lane (1907)
- (1912)
- (1914)
- (1916)
- (1918)
- (1922)
- (1924)
- (1928)
- Charles J. Jenkins (1930)
- (1930)
- (1934)
- (1936)
- (1936)
- (1938)
- (1940)
- Corneal A. Davis (1943)
- Christopher C. Wimbish (1943)
- (1944)
- (1944)
- (1954)
- William H. Robinson (1954)
- (1956)
- (!956)
- Floy Clements (1958)
- Cecil A. Partee (1957)
- Charles F. Armstrong (1957)
Indiana[]
Senate[]
- Robert Brokenburr (1940)
House[]
- (1932)
- (1932)
- (1932)
- (1940)
- (1942, 1944)
- (1942)
Kansas[]
House[]
- (1929-1930, 1933–1936)
- (1937-1939)
Kentucky[]
House[]
- Charles W. Anderson (1936)
Maryland[]
Senate[]
- Harry A. Cole (1955-1966)
House[]
- (1955)
- (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)
- (1941)
- Charline White (1950)
Missouri[]
House[]
- Walthall M. Moore (1921)
- (1943)
- (1947-1948)
- (1949-1954)
- (1954)
Nebraska[]
Senate, then Unicameral Legislature[]
- John Adams Jr. (1937)
House (prior to 1937)[]
- (1924)
- (1924)
- John Andrew Singleton (1927)
- (1933)
- John Adams Jr. (1935)
New Jersey[]
General Assembly[]
- Walter G. Alexander (1920)
- Oliver Randolph (1922)
- (1927)
- Frank S. Hargrave (1930-1931, 1933–1935, 1937-?, 1938–1942)
- (1933-1937)
- (1937-)
- (1943-1947)
- Madaline A. Williams (1957)
New York[]
Senate[]
- Julius A. Archibald (1953)
State Assembly[]
- Edward A. Johnson (1917)
- (1919)
- (1922)
- (1925)
- (1930)
- Francis E. Rivers (1930)
- (1930)
- William T. Andrews (1934)
- (1935)
- Daniel Burrows (1938)
- Hulan E. Jack (1940)
- (1944)
- Bessie A. Buchanan (1955)
Ohio[]
Senate[]
House[]
- George W. Hays (1901)
- (1904)
- A. Lee Beaty (1919)
- (1919)
- Harry E. Davis (1921)
- (1924)
- Perry B. Jackson (1928)
- (1933-1935, 1943–1945)
- (1934)
- (1940)
- (1942)
- (1944)
Oklahoma[]
House[]
- A. C. Hamlin (1908)
Pennsylvania[]
House[]
- (1911)
- (1920)
- (1920)
- (1924)
- (1924)
- (1930)
- (1932)
- Homer S. Brown (1934)
- (1934)
- (!934)
- (1935-1936, 1939–1940)
- (1935-1938, 1941–1942)
- (1936)
- (1937-1938, 1943–1944)
- (1936)
- (1936)
- (1938)
- Crystal Bird Fauset (1938)
- (1940)
- (1940)
- (1943-1946, 1949–1954)
- (1943-1944, 1947–1952)
- (1943-1946, 1950–1951)
- (1945-1946)
- (1945-1946, 1949–1956)
Vermont[]
House[]
- William J. Anderson (1944)
Washington[]
House[]
- (1933)
West Virginia[]
House[]
- (1902)
- (1904)
- (1917)
- Minnie Buckingham Harper (1928, appointed)
Wisconsin[]
Assembly[]
- Lucian H. Palmer (1906)
- (1942)
- (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[]
- , 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[]
- , 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
Categories:
- African-American politicians