African-American officeholders in the United States, 1789–1866

In 1836, Alexander L. Twilight became the first African American to be elected as a state legislator in the United States.

The United States has had five African-American elected office holders prior to 1867. After Congress passed the First Military Reconstruction Act of 1867 and ratified the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1870, African Americans began to be elected or appointed to national, state, county and local offices throughout the United States.[1]

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 in elective office until his death in 1817.
  • Alexander Lucius Twilight was an American educator, politician, and minister. He was the first African American to earn a college degree from an American College at Middlebury College in 1823. He is the first African American elected to serve in a state legislature, the Vermont House of Representatives in 1836. Twilight was also a minister and secondary school principal, building Athenian Hall at the Orleans County Grammar Schools.
  • John Mercer Langston
  • Edward Garrison Walker, state legislator in Massachusetts
  • Charles Lewis Mitchell was the other African American elected as a state legislator in Massachusetts (1866). He served a one-year term in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.[2] During the American Civil War he served in the 55th Massachusetts Colored Volunteer Infantry and lost a foot during the Battle of Honey Hill.[3]

List of African-American officeholders of the United States, 1789–1866

Political Parties

  Party affiliation not known   Republican

Officeholder State Public office Took office Left office Party Ref.
No image.svg
 Wentworth Cheswell
(1746–1817)
 New Hampshire Local School Board 1776 [4][5][6]
Justice of the Peace 1805 1817
Alexander Lucius Twilight (daguerrotype).jpg
 Alexander L. Twilight
(1795–1857)
Vermont State Legislator 1836 1857 [7][8][9][10]
John M. Langston.jpg
 John Mercer Langston
(1829–1897)
Ohio Township Clerk 1854 Liberty Party of Ohio [11][12][13]
Edwin Walker.jpg
 Edward G. Walker
(1831–1901)
 Massachusetts State Legislator 1866 1867 Republican [14][15][16]
Charles Lewis Mitchell (1829-1912).png
 Charles L. Mitchell
(1829–1912)
 Massachusetts State Legislator 1866 Republican [15]

See also

Federal government

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State and local government

See also

  • List of African-American officeholders (1900–1959)

References

  1. ^ Walton, Puckett & Deskins (2012), pp. 185–186.
  2. ^ Hewitt (1991), pp. 453.
  3. ^ Baum (1983), pp. 62.
  4. ^ Walton, Puckett & Deskins (2012), pp. 185 (table), 186–187.
  5. ^ Cocom (1999).
  6. ^ Fitts (1912), pp. 103, 468.
  7. ^ Winter 2007.
  8. ^ Alexander.
  9. ^ Hahan (1998).
  10. ^ Smith (1993), pp. 118 note 59.
  11. ^ Walton, Puckett & Deskins (2012), pp. 14, 185 (table), 186.
  12. ^ Smith (1993), pp. 408.
  13. ^ United States Congress.
  14. ^ Hurst 2008.
  15. ^ a b Walton, Puckett & Deskins (2012), pp. 14, 185 (table).
  16. ^ Smith (1993), pp. 100, 118 note 59.

Bibliography

  • "Alexander Twilight". Old Stone House Museum. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
  • Baum, Dale (March 1983). "Woman Suffrage and the "Chinese Question": The Limits of Radical Republicanism in Massachusetts, 1865-1876". The New England Quarterly. 56 (1): 60–77. doi:10.2307/365311. JSTOR 365311.
  • Cocom, Mario de ' y (1999). "Cheswell". Secret Daughter: The Blurred Racial Lines of Famous Families. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Retrieved 10 January 2013.
  • "Langston, John Mercer, (1829 - 1897)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. United States Congress. Retrieved November 24, 2013.
  • Fitts, James Hill (1912). Carter (ed.). History of Newfields, New Hampshire, 1638-1911. The Rumford Press. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
  • Hahan, Michael (1998). Alexander Twilight: Vermont's African American Pioneer. Shelburne, Vermont: New England Press. ISBN 978-1-881535-31-7.
  • Hewitt, John H. (Autumn 1991). "A Black New York Newspaperman's Impressions of Boston, 1883". The Massachusetts Review. 32 (3).
  • Hurst, Ryan (11 June 2008). "Walker, Edwin Garrison (1830-1901)". BlackPast.org: Remembered & Reclaimed. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
  • Smith, J. Clay Jr. (1993). Emancipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer, 1844-1944. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 9780812216851.
  • Walton Jr., Hanes; Puckett, Sherman C.; Deskins Jr., Donald R. (2012). The African American Electorate: A Statistical History. Congressional Quarterly Press. ISBN 9780872895089.
  • Winter, Kari J. (17 January 2007). "Twilight, Alexander (1795-1857)". BlackPast.org: Remembered & Reclaimed. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
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