List of African-American U.S. state 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 elected African-American lieutenant governor: Oscar Dunn, Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana
May: First African-American acting governor: Oscar James Dunn of Louisiana from May till August 9, 1871, when sitting Governor Warmoth was incapacitated and chose to recuperate in Mississippi. (See also: Douglas Wilder, 1990)
First African-American police officer in Chicago, Illinois: James L. Shelton.[3]
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 elected to the Indiana general assembly: James Sidney Hinton.[4][5]

20th century

First African American elected to political office on the West Coast: Frederick Madison Roberts, California State Assembly
First African Americans elected as judges in the state of New York: James S. Watson and Charles E. Toney
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 woman Texas state senator: Barbara Jordan
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 admitted to the Mississippi Bar: Marian Wright Edelman
First African American elected mayor of a Mississippi city since Reconstruction: Charles Evers, in Fayette, Mississippi[6]
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 elected to a statewide office in Georgia: Robert Benham, Supreme Court of Georgia
First African-American governor of Virginia: Douglas Wilder (Also first elected governor in US; see also P. B. S. Pinchback, 1872)
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 and only 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 and only female Senator from Illinois).
First African-American woman elected State Treasurer and first African-American woman elected statewide in Connecticut: Denise Nappier[7]
First African American elected to office of Attorney General Georgia: Thurbert E. Baker,

21st century

First African-American lieutenant governor of Maryland and first elected to statewide office in Maryland: Michael Steele (See also: 2009)
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 elected governor of Massachusetts: Deval Patrick
First African-American lieutenant governor of New York: David Paterson
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 bicameral state legislature to have both chambers headed simultaneously by African Americans: Peter Groff and Terrance Carroll of Colorado.
First African-American attorney general of California: Kamala Harris
First African-American Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court: Roderick L. Ireland
First African-American senator from South Carolina: Tim Scott[8] (Also the first African-American to serve both houses of the U.S. Congress.)
First African-American to be elected and serve as Worshipful Master of an Ancient, Free, and Accepted Masonic Lodge in the United States: Gerald F. Poe Jr. He was installed on January 1, 2012 as Worshipful Master of Patuxent Lodge No. 218 of Maryland, under the Authority of the Grand Lodge of Maryland.
First African-American senator elected from the South since Reconstruction: Tim Scott [9]
First African American elected Speaker of the New York State Assembly: Carl Heastie[10]
First African-American Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky and first elected to statewide office in Kentucky: Jenean Hampton [11][12]

See also

Footnotes

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