The Almanac of Women and Minorities in American Politics 2002 by Mart Martin

Author:Mart Martin [Martin, Mart]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General
ISBN: 9780429976483
Google: GpRXDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 23052409
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1999-04-08T00:00:00+00:00

African Americans in State Legislatures

Notable First: 1972

Barbara Jordan, (D) Texas, first elected in 1966, became president pro tern of the Texas senate. As such, she was the first African American woman to preside over a state legislative body, which on several occasions allowed her to “act” as governor when both the governor and lieutenant governor of Texas were absent from the state.

Notable First: 1971

Cecil A. Partee, (D) Illinois, became the president pro tem of the state senate, the first African American to head a branch of a state legislature since Reconstruction.

Notable First: 1952

Cora M. Brown, (R) Michigan, became the first African American woman elected to a state senate seat.

Notable First: 1938

Crystal Bird Fauset, (D) Pennsylvania, became the first African American woman elected to a state legislature.

Notable First: 1927

Minnie Buckingham-Harper, (R) West Virginia, became the first African American woman to sit in a state legislature. She was appointed to her husband’s seat after his death.

Notable First: 1922

Henry W. Shields, (D) New York, was elected to the state house of representatives, the first African American Democrat elected to public office.

Notable First: 1872

Samuel J. Lee, (R) South Carolina, was the first African American elected speaker of a state’s house of representatives. The South Carolina legislature that convened two years later, in 1874, was also the first state legislature in which the presiding offices in both houses were held by African Americans, with Stephen A. Swails (R) as president pro tem of the state senate.

Notable First: 1868

The South Carolina legislature convened and its lower house (the general assembly) had eighty-seven African American members—all Republican—out of a total membership of 127. This was the first state legislative body controlled by African Americans. Whites became a majority in the body again in 1874.

Notable First: 1866

Edwin G. Walker (R) and Charles L. Mitchell (R), both of Massachusetts, became the first African Americans elected to a state legislature. Years later Walker changed his party affiliation to the Democratic Party.

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