African American Firsts – Government
John Mercer Langston (1829-1897)
John Mercer Langston, the youngest of four children, was born a free black in Louisa County, Virginia, on December 14, 1829....
Pierre Caliste Landry (1841-1921)
Pierre Caliste Landry, a former slave turned educator and minister, is noted as the first African American to be elected...
Carolyn L. Robertson Payton (1925-2001)
Dr. Carolyn L. Robertson Payton was the first African American and the first woman to become the director of the...
Loretta Elizabeth Lynch (1959- )
Attorney and public prosecutor Loretta Elizabeth Lynch was born on May 21, 1959 in Greensboro, North Carolina. Her father was...
George Edwin Taylor (1857-1925)
George Edwin Taylor Minidoc Born in the pre-Civil War South to a mother who was free and a father who...
Crystal Bird Fauset (1894-1965)
Crystal Bird Fauset, the first African-American female state legislator in the United States, was born on June 27, 1894 in...
Matthias de Sousa (?-?)
Matthias de Sousa, an indentured servant, was the only black person to serve in the colonial Maryland legislature. As such...
Hiram Rhodes Revels (1827-1901)
Hiram Rhodes Revels was a Republican U.S. Senator, minister in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, and the first African...
Joseph Hayne Rainey (1832-1887)
In 1870 Republican Joseph Hayne Rainey became the first African American to be elected to the United States House of...
