List of African-American U.S. state firsts
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See also: List of African-American firsts
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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.
Contents |
[edit] 19th century
- 1868
-
- First elected African-American lieutenant governor: Oscar Dunn, Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana
- 1872
-
- First African-American governor of Louisiana: P. B. S. Pinchback (Also first in U.S.) (Non-elected; see also Douglas Wilder, 1990)
[edit] 20th century
- 1918
-
- First African American elected to political office on the West Coast: Frederick Madison Roberts, California State Assembly
- 1930
-
- First African Americans elected as judges in the state of New York: James S. Watson and Charles E. Toney[citation needed]
- 1966
-
- First African American woman Texas state senator: Barbara Jordan
- First African American appointed to New York State Board of Regents: Kenneth Bancroft Clark
- 1967
-
- First African-American woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar: Marian Wright Edelman
- 1969
-
- First African American elected mayor of a Mississippi city since Reconstruction: Charles Evers, in Fayette, Mississippi[3]
- 1979
-
- First African American elected to a statewide office in Illinois: Roland Burris, office of Comptroller
- 1980
-
- First African-American Speaker of the California State Assembly: Willie Lewis Brown, Jr.
- 1990
-
- First African-American governor of Virginia: Douglas Wilder (Also first elected governor in US; see also P. B. S. Pinchback, 1872)
[edit] 21st century
- 2002
-
- First African-American Lieutenant Governor of Maryland: Michael Steele
- 2004
-
- First African-American Oklahoma Supreme Court justice: Tom Colbert
- 2006
-
- First African American elected governor of Massachusetts: Deval Patrick
- First African-American Lieutenant Governor of New York: David Paterson
- 2008
-
- 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)
- 2009
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- First bicameral state legislature to have both chambers headed simultaneously by African Americans: Peter Groff and Terrance Carroll of Colorado.
[edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Juguo, Zhang. W. E. B. Du Bois: The Quest for the Abolition of the Color Line, Routledge, 2001 - ISBN 0415930871
- ^ Herbst, Philip H. The Color of Words: an encyclopaedic dictionary of ethnic bias in the United States, Intercultural Press, p. 57, 1997 - ISBN 1877864978
- ^ Neil R. McMillen, Dark Journey: Black Mississippians in the Age of Jim Crow, Chicago: University of Illinois, 1990, p.26
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