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Four of the five office holders served in a New England state. Three officeholders served as state legislators. Wentworth Cheswell first served in an elective office in 1776 as a local school board member in Newmarket, New Hampshire, and later as a justice of the peace (making him the first African American to serve as a judge). He would serve ...
Joseph Hayne Rainey (June 21, 1832 – August 1, 1887) was an American politician. He was the first black person to serve in the United States House of Representatives and the second black person (after Hiram Revels) to serve in the United States Congress. His service included time as presiding officer of the House of Representatives.
At the age of 26 in 1872, Lynch was elected as the youngest member of the US Congress from Mississippi's 6th congressional district, as part of the first generation of African-American Congressmen. (This district was created by the state legislature in 1870.) He was the only African American elected from Mississippi for a century.
The first African American to become party leader in either chamber of congress was Hakeem Jeffries in 2023. One member, then Senator Barack Obama, went from the Senate to President of the United States in 2009. The first African Americans to serve in the Congress were Republicans elected during the Reconstruction Era.
Josiah Thomas Walls (December 30, 1842 – May 15, 1905) was a farmer, lawyer and politician who served all or some of three terms in the United States House of Representatives between 1871 and 1876. He was one of the first African Americans in the United States Congress elected during the Reconstruction Era , and the first black person to be ...
After moving to New Orleans, on November 3, 1868, Menard was the first black man ever elected to the United States House of Representatives. [1] His opponent contested his election, and opposition to his election prevented him from being seated in Congress.
First African American to serve on a U.S. district court: James Benton Parsons, appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois; First African-American delegate to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization: Edith S. Sampson (See also: 1950) First African American to go over Niagara Falls: Nathan Boya a.k.a. William ...
Oscar Stanton De Priest (March 9, 1871 – May 12, 1951) was an American politician and civil rights advocate from Chicago. A member of the Illinois Republican Party, he served as a U.S. Representative from Illinois's 1st congressional district from 1929 to 1935. He was the first African American to be elected to Congress in the 20th century ...