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
- Edward W. Mann (1943)
- 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)
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)
- Kenneth E. Wilson (1954)
- William H. Robinson (1954)
- J. Horace Gardner (1956)
- Elwood Graham (!956)
- Floy Clements (1958)
- Cecil A. Partee (1957)
- Charles F. Armstrong (1957)
Indiana
Senate
- Robert Brokenburr (1940)
House
- Harry H. Richardson (1932)
- Robert V. 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 (1936)
Maryland
House
- 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)
- Horace A. White (1941)
- Charline White (1950)
Missouri
House
- Walthall M. Moore (1921)
- Edwin F. Kenwill (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)
- John 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)
Ohio
Senate
House
- George W. Hays (1901)
- H.T. Eubanks (1904)
- A. Lee Beaty (1919)
- Henry Higgins (1919)
- Harry E. Davis (1921)
- E.W.B. Curry (1924)
- 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)
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 W. 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 W. Mintess (1943-1944, 1947-1952)
- Thomas P. Trent (1943-1946, 1950-1951)
- Lee P. Myhan (1945-1946)
- J. Thompson Pettigrew (1945-1946, 1949-1956)
Vermont
House
- William J. Anderson (1944)
Washington
House
- John H. Ryan (1933)
West Virginia
House
- James M. Ellis (1902)
- Howard Railey (1904)
- Minnie Buckingham Harper (1928, appointed)
Wisconsin
Assembly
- Lucian H. Palmer (1906)
- Cleveland M. Colbert (1942)
- Leroy J. Simmons (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
- William T. Patrick, 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
- Thomas W. Fleming, 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