The first African-American in Government were...Local elected official:
John Mercer Langston, 1855, town clerk of Brownhelm Township, Ohio.
State elected official: Alexander Lucius Twilight, 1836, the Vermont legislature.
Mayor of major city:
Carl Stokes, Cleveland, Ohio, 1967–1971.
The first black woman to serve as a mayor of a major U.S. city was Sharon Pratt Dixon Kelly, Washington, DC, 1991–1995.
Governor (appointed):
P.B.S. Pinchback served as governor of Louisiana from Dec. 9, 1872–Jan. 13, 1873, during impeachment proceedings against the elected governor.
Governor (elected):
L. Douglas Wilder, Virginia, 1990–1994.
The only other elected black governor has been
Deval Patrick, Massachusetts, 2007–
U.S.
Representative:
Joseph Rainey became a Congressman from South Carolina in 1870 and was reelected four more times.
The first black female U.S. Representative was
Shirley Chisholm, Congresswoman from New York, 1969–1983.
U.S. Senator:
Hiram Revels became Senator from Mississippi from Feb. 25, 1870, to March 4, 1871, during Reconstruction.
Edward Brooke became the first African-American Senator since Reconstruction, 1966–1979.
Carol Mosely Braun became the first black woman Senator serving from 1992–1998 for the state of Illinois.
(There have only been a total of five black senators in U.S. history: the remaining two are
Blanche K. Bruce [1875–1881] and
Barack Obama (2005–2008 ).
U.S. cabinet member:
Robert C. Weaver, 1966–1968, Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development under Lyndon Johnson;
the first black female cabinet minister was
Patricia Harris, 1977, Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development under Jimmy Carter.
U.S. Secretary of State: Gen.
Colin Powell, 2001–2004.
The first black female Secretary of State was
Condoleezza Rice, 2005–.
Major Party Nominee for President: Sen.
Barack Obama, 2008. The Democratic Party selected him as its presidential nominee and he became the first black President 2008
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