List of African-American U.S. State Firsts - 20th Century

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

• 1962

First African-American attorney general of Massachusetts: Edward Brooke. Also first African American to hold Massachusetts statewide office, and first African-American attorney general of any state.

• 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

• 1979

First African American elected to a statewide office in Illinois: Roland Burris, office of Comptroller

First African American elected to a statewide office in Wisconsin: Vel Phillips, office of Secretary of State

• 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)

• 1992

First African American elected to a statewide office in Indiana: Pamela Carter, office of Attorney General

• 1998

First African-American woman elected State Treasurer and first African-American woman elected statewide in Connecticut: Denise Nappier

First African American elected to a statewide office in Georgia: Thurbert E. Baker, office of Attorney General