List of African-American U.S. state firsts explained

See also: List of African-American firsts.

African Americans are a demographic minority in the United States. African-Americans' initial achievements in various fields historically establish a foothold, providing a precedent for more widespread cultural change. The shorthand phrase for this is "breaking the color barrier."[1] [2]

In addition to major national- and international-level firsts, African-Americans have achieved firsts on a statewide basis.

19th century

First governor of African descent in what is now the US: Pío Pico, an Afro-Mexican, was the last governor of Alta California before it was ceded to the US. Like all Californios, Pico automatically became a US citizen in 1848. He was elected to the Los Angeles Common Council in 1853, but he did not assume office.

First elected African-American lieutenant governor: Oscar Dunn, Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana

First 33 African-American legislators in Georgia: see Original 33

May: First African-American acting governor: Oscar James Dunn of Louisiana from May until August 9, 1871, when sitting Governor Warmoth was incapacitated and chose to recuperate in Mississippi. (see also: Douglas Wilder, 1990)

First African-American governor of Louisiana: P. B. S. Pinchback (Also first in U.S.) (non-elected; see also Douglas Wilder, 1990)

First African-American Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives, and of any state legislature: John R. Lynch

First African American elected to the Tennessee General Assembly: Sampson W. Keeble

First African American elected to the Illinois General Assembly: John W. E. Thomas

First African American elected mayor in New York State (village president of Cleveland): Ned Sherman

First African American elected to the Wyoming Legislature: William Jefferson Hardin

First African American elected to the Ohio General Assembly: George Washington Williams

First African American elected to the Indiana General Assembly: James Sidney Hinton[3] [4]

First African American elected to the Rhode Island General Assembly: Mahlon Van Horne

First African-American female principal in Massachusetts and the Northeast: Maria Louise Baldwin, supervising white faculty and a predominantly white student body at the Agassiz Grammar School in Cambridge (renamed the Maria L. Baldwin School in 2004).[5] [6]

First African-American member elected to the Michigan House of Representatives: William Webb Ferguson

First African-American member elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives: John Francis Wheaton[7]

20th century

First African-American elected to the Wisconsin Legislature: Lucian H. Palmer

First African American to enter the University of Oregon: Mabel Byrd[8]

First African-American elected to political office in California: Frederick Madison Roberts, California State Assembly

First African-American elected to the Missouri legislature: Walthall Moore

First African-American elected to the Illinois Senate: Adelbert Roberts

First African Americans elected as judges in the state of New York: James S. Watson and Charles E. Toney[9]

First African-American woman to be elected to the Pennsylvania General Assembly and to any state legislature: Crystal Bird Fauset

First African-American woman to own a cosmetology school in Iowa: Pauline Brown Humphrey[10]

First African American elected to the Delaware House of Representatives: William J. Winchester

First African-American woman to be elected to the West Virginia Legislature: Elizabeth Simpson Drewry

First African-American woman to be elected to the Michigan Legislature: Charline White

First African American to graduate from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences: Edith Irby Jones[11]

First African-American woman elected to the New York State Legislature: Bessie A. Buchanan

First African-American elected to the Maryland State Senate: Harry A. Cole

First African-American student to attend the University of Alabama: Autherine Lucy[12] Her expulsion from the institution later that year led to the university's President Oliver Carmichael's resignation.[13] [14]

First African American to teach at college or university level in California: Betty Smith Williams.[15] [16]

First African-American woman elected to the New Jersey Legislature: Madaline A. Williams

First African-American women elected to the Maryland General Assembly: Verda F. Welcome and Irma George Dixon

First African-American woman elected to the Illinois General Assembly: Floy Clements

First African American to graduate from the University of Maryland: Elaine J. Coates[17]

First African American to graduate from the University of Maryland: Elaine J. Coates[18]

First African-American attorney general of Massachusetts: Edward Brooke. Also first African American to hold Massachusetts statewide office, and first African-American attorney general of any state.

First African American elected to the Delaware Senate: Herman Holloway

First African-American woman elected to the Indiana Legislature: Daisy Riley Lloyd

First African-American woman elected to the New York State Senate: Constance Baker Motley

First African-American woman elected to the Texas Legislature: Barbara Jordan

First African American known lesbian state legislator: Barbara Jordan

First African-American woman elected to the Georgia General Assembly: Grace Towns Hamilton

First African-American appointed to New York State Board of Regents: Kenneth Bancroft Clark

First African-American senator from Massachusetts: Edward Brooke. (Also first post-Reconstruction African American elected to the U.S. Senate and first African American elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote).

First African-American woman in the California Legislature: Yvonne Brathwaite Burke

First African-American woman elected to the Tennessee General Assembly: Dorothy Lavinia Brown

First African-American woman elected to the Arizona Legislature: Ethel Maynard

First African-American woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar: Marian Wright Edelman

First African-American woman elected to the Montana Legislature: Geraldine W. Travis

First African-American elected to the Florida Legislature since Reconstruction: Joe Lang Kershaw

First African-American elected mayor of a Mississippi city since Reconstruction: Charles Evers, in Fayette, Mississippi[19]

First African-Americans elected to the Alaska Legislature: Willard L. Bowman and Joshua Wright

First African-American woman elected to the Delaware General Assembly: Henrietta R. Johnson

First African-American woman elected to the Florida Legislature: Gwen Cherry

First African-American woman elected to the Washington Legislature: Peggy Maxie

First African-American elected to the Wisconsin Senate: Monroe Swan

First African-American woman elected to the Massachusetts General Court: Doris Bunte

First African-American woman elected to the Connecticut General Assembly: Margaret E. Morton

First African-American woman elected to the Michigan State Board of Education: Barbara Roberts Mason

First African-American man elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives: Henry Richardson

First African-American woman elected to the South Carolina Legislature: Juanita Goggins

First African-American appointed as a judge in Federal District Court in Virginia: Robert H. Cooley III (1939–1998), appointed to the Eastern District[20]

First African-American elected mayor in New Mexico: Albert Johnson[21]

First African-American to serve on the California Supreme Court: Wiley W. Manuel

First African-American speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives, and of any state legislature in the United States since Reconstruction: K. Leroy Irvis

First African-American woman elected to the Wisconsin Legislature: Marcia P. Coggs

First African-American woman elected to the Illinois Senate: Earlean Collins

First African-American appointed to the office of Michigan State Treasurer: Loren E. Monroe[23]

First African-American woman elected to the Ohio Legislature: Helen Rankin

First African-American elected to a statewide office in Illinois: Roland Burris, office of Comptroller

First African-American elected to a statewide office in Wisconsin: Vel Phillips, office of Secretary of State

First African-American speaker of the California State Assembly: Willie Lewis Brown Jr.

First African-American woman elected to the Arkansas General Assembly: Irma Hunter Brown

First African-American elected to the Utah Senate: Terry Lee Williams

First African-American elected to a statewide office in Georgia: Robert Benham, Supreme Court of Georgia

First African-American woman to be elected to the Virginia General Assembly: Yvonne B. Miller

First African-American woman to be elected to the Mississippi Legislature: Alyce Clarke

First African-American woman elected to the Oregon Legislature: Margaret Carter

First African-American elected to the Wyoming Legislature: Harriet Elizabeth Byrd

First African-American governor of Virginia: Douglas Wilder (also first elected governor in US; see also P. B. S. Pinchback, 1872)

First African-American woman elected to the Alaska Legislature: Bettye Davis

First African-American woman elected to the Louisiana State Senate: Diana Bajoie

First African-American elected to a statewide office in Indiana: Pamela Carter, office of Attorney General

First African-American Minnesota Supreme Court justice: Alan Page

First African-American senator from Illinois: Carol Moseley Braun. (Also first African-American woman elected to the United States Senate, the first African-American U.S. Senator for the Democratic Party, the first woman to defeat an incumbent U.S. Senator in an election, and the first female Senator from Illinois).

First African-American woman elected to the Nevada Legislature: Bernice Mathews

First African-American woman elected to the Delaware Senate: Margaret Rose Henry

First African-American woman elected to the Oregon Legislature: Avel Gordly

First African-American woman elected State Treasurer and first African-American woman elected statewide in Connecticut: Denise Nappier[24]

First African-American elected to office of Attorney General Georgia: Thurbert E. Baker

21st century

First African-American woman elected to the Minnesota Legislature: Neva Walker

First African-American lieutenant governor of Maryland and first elected to statewide office in Maryland: Michael Steele (see also: 2009)

First African-American District Attorney in California: Kamala Harris (San Francisco) (see also: 2010, 2017)

First African-American Oklahoma Supreme Court justice: Tom Colbert

First African-American Wisconsin Supreme Court justice: Louis B. Butler

First African-American Auditor of Accounts of Vermont and first elected to statewide office in Vermont: Randy Brock

First African-American congresswoman elected in Wisconsin's history: Gwen Moore

First African-American elected governor of Massachusetts: Deval Patrick

First African-American lieutenant governor of New York: David Paterson

First African-American appointed State Treasurer of New Jersey: Michellene Davis

First African-American woman elected Speaker of the California State Assembly: Karen Bass

First African-American governor of New York State: David Paterson (elected as lieutenant governor, succeeded on resignation of previous governor)

First African-American women elected to the Nebraska Legislature: Tanya Cook and Brenda Council

First bicameral state legislature to have both chambers headed simultaneously by African Americans: Peter Groff and Terrance Carroll of Colorado.

First African-American elected Attorney General of California: Kamala Harris (see also: 2004, 2017)

First African-American Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court: Roderick L. Ireland

First African-American elected to the Idaho Legislature: Cherie Buckner-Webb

First African-American elected to the Idaho Senate: Cherie Buckner-Webb

First African-American senator from South Carolina: Tim Scott[25] (Also the first African-American to serve both houses of the U.S. Congress.)

First African-American woman to be appointed to a seat on the New York Court of Appeals: Sheila Abdus-Salaam.

First African-American senator from New Jersey: Cory Booker

First African-American senator elected from the South since Reconstruction: Tim Scott[26]

First African-American elected Speaker of the New York State Assembly: Carl Heastie[27]

First African-American Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky and first elected to statewide office in Kentucky: Jenean Hampton[28] [29]

First African-American woman elected to the Utah Legislature: Sandra Hollins

First African-American United States Senator from California: Kamala Harris (see also: 2004, 2010)

First African-American elected lieutenant governor of New Jersey: Sheila Oliver[30]

First African-American out trans woman to be elected to public office in the United States: Andrea Jenkins

First female African-American major-party candidate for governor: Stacey Abrams, Georgia

First African-American elected Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Garlin Gilchrist[31]

First African-American Attorney General of New York: Letitia James[32]

First African-American and First woman elected Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates: Adrienne A. Jones

First African-American elected Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Juliana Stratton

First African-American elected Attorney General of Kentucky: Daniel Cameron

First Surgeon General for the State of California: Nadine Burke Harris[33]

First African-American congresswoman elected in Missouri's history: Cori Bush[34]

First African-American elected Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: Mark Robinson

First African-American senator from Georgia and first African-American Democratic Senator from the South: Raphael Warnock[35]

First African-American woman to serve on the Supreme Court of Missouri: Robin Ransom[36]

First African-American woman elected Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: Winsome Sears

First African-American woman to serve as Secretary of the State of Connecticut: Natalie Braswell[37]

First African-American elected Attorney General of Maryland: Anthony Brown

First African-American woman elected Attorney General of Massachusetts: Andrea Campbell

First African-American elected Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: Austin Davis

First African-American congresswoman elected in Pennsylvania's history: Summer Lee

First African-American elected governor of Maryland: Wes Moore

First African-American elected Speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives: Joe Tate

First African-American woman elected Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives: Joanna McClinton[38]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Juguo, Zhang. W. E. B. Du Bois: The Quest for the Abolition of the Color Line, Routledge, 2001 -
  2. Herbst, Philip H. The Color of Words: an encyclopaedic dictionary of ethnic bias in the United States, Intercultural Press, p. 57, 1997 -
  3. Web site: Standing with Black trailblazer James S. Hinton. John. Gregg. Indianapolisrecorder.com. February 23, 2012. October 25, 2017.
  4. http://www.in.gov/history/4043.htm Indiana Black History Public Art Legacy Project
  5. Web site: The Mismeasure of Maria Baldwin . https://web.archive.org/web/20071023054813/http://www.peaceworkmagazine.org/pwork/0204/020420.htm . dead . October 23, 2007 . Peacework Magazine . April 2002 . September 24, 2017 . Nathaniel . Vogel .
  6. Web site: Dorgan . Lauren R. . Committee Renames Local Agassiz School . The Harvard Crimson . May 22, 2002 . September 24, 2017 .
  7. http://www.leg.state.mn.us/legdb/fulldetail.asp?ID=12076 Wheaton, John Frances "Frank, J. Frank"
  8. Web site: Untold Stories: Black History . 2016-02-04 . University of Oregon Special Collections and University Archives Blog . 2016-02-04 . mdy-all.
  9. Judicial Friends Association. (n.d.). Heroic beginnings - judicial friends association. Retrieved January 26, 2023, from https://judicialfriends.org/heroic-beginnings/https://judicialfriends.org/heroic-beginnings
  10. Web site: IWF Celebrates Black History in Iowa: Pauline Brown Humphrey . February 25, 2021 . The Iowa Women's Foundation . October 1, 2021.
  11. News: University to Graduate First Negro Student. December 26, 2015. Hope Star. May 19, 1952. Hope, Arkansas. 3. Newspapers.com.
  12. Web site: Civil rights pioneer Vivian Jones dies . USA Today . 2005-10-13 . 2007-11-23 . mdy-all .
  13. Web site: Expelled in 1956, Autherine Lucy Foster Receives Honorary Doctorate from University of Alabama. May 6, 2019.
  14. Education: Goodbye to 'Bama. August 28, 2017. Time. November 19, 1956.
  15. Web site: Uniting Nurses of Color. Robison. Daniel. Case Western Reserve University. en. 2020-05-23.
  16. Web site: Celebrating Excellence: Past, Present and Future. Burnette. Margarette. 2013-03-30. Minority Nurse. en-US. 2020-05-23.
  17. News: Svrluga. Susan. 2019-05-24. After a tumultuous year, U-Md. graduates celebrate new beginnings. 2020-08-07. The Washington Post. en.
  18. News: Svrluga. Susan. 2019-05-24. After a tumultuous year, U-Md. graduates celebrate new beginnings. 2020-08-07. The Washington Post. en.
  19. https://books.google.com/books?id=egDocn9COn8C&pg=PA25 Neil R. McMillen, Dark Journey: Black Mississippians in the Age of Jim Crow
  20. Web site: Getting Word: African American Families of Monticello – Robert H. Cooley III . . Charlottesville, VA . December 23, 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20141223163817/http://www.monticello.org/getting-word/people/robert-h-cooley-iii . live.
  21. News: September 2, 1976 . First black mayor . 53 . . live . https://archive.today/20200807194541/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56795016/albuquerque-journal/ . August 7, 2020 . Newspapers.com.
  22. News: September 2, 1976 . First black mayor . 53 . . live . https://archive.today/20200807194541/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56795016/albuquerque-journal/ . August 7, 2020 . Newspapers.com.
  23. Web site: Loren Monroe, first black State Treasurer of Michigan, dead at 87. Michigan Chronicle. June 4, 2019. May 22, 2020.
  24. Web site: Office of Connecticut State Treasurer Denise L. Nappier . 2011-04-04 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110726211644/http://www.state.ct.us/ott/nappier.htm . 2011-07-26 .
  25. News: Tim Scott's swearing-in as senator caps his historic rise . McClatchy Newspapers . January 4, 2013 . January 11, 2013 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20131220064940/http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/01/04/3764130/tim-scotts-swearing-in-as-senator.html . December 20, 2013 .
  26. News: Political firsts: How history was made this midterm election. USA Today. October 25, 2017.
  27. Web site: Carl E. Heastie. New York State Assembly. October 25, 2017.
  28. Web site: Meet Jenean Hampton, the first black statewide officeholder in Kentucky. And, she's a Republican.. Amber. Phillips. November 4, 2015. October 25, 2017. Washingtonpost.com.
  29. Web site: Kentucky's New GOP Lt. Gov. Is Black Tea-Party Activist . John . Fund. . November 3, 2015. November 4, 2015 .
  30. http://amsterdamnews.com/news/2017/nov/07/sheila-oliver-becomes-first-black-lieutenant-gover/ Sheila Oliver becomes New Jersey's first Black lieutenant governor
  31. News: David . Eggert . November 7, 2018 . Democrat Gretchen Whitmer wins Michigan governor race, beating Bill Schuette . Chicago Tribune . Associated Press . May 22, 2020.
  32. News: Ashley. Westerman. January 1, 2019. N.Y. Swears In New Attorney General After A Tumultuous Year For The Office. NPR. February 13, 2021.
  33. Web site: Meet the Black Woman Appointed as California's First-Ever Surgeon General. Crudup. Devin. April 6, 2020. AfroTech. 2020-05-15.
  34. Derek Major. November 5, 2020. "Here Are The Black Americans That Have Made History In The 2020 Election" Black Enterprise. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
  35. Web site: 'The new south': Raphael Warnock becomes Georgia's first Black senator. January 6, 2021. The Guardian. 2021-02-12.
  36. Web site: Parson appoints Robin Ransom, first Black woman to serve on Missouri Supreme Court . May 24, 2021 . Kuang . Jeanne . . May 25, 2021.
  37. Web site: Pazniokas. Mark. 2021-12-10. Natalie Braswell to be named comptroller after Lembo steps down. 2022-02-07. CT Mirror. en-US.
  38. Web site: Scolforo . Mark . 2023-02-28 . McClinton voted Pa. speaker; first Black woman to win post . 2023-02-28 . . en.

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