50 years of progress: blacks in politics 1951-2001
Awesome changes have taken place in American politics in the 50 years since our first JET issue rolled off the presses. Colossal changes, in fact, have catapulted Blacks from the "back of the bus" into the driver's seat at every level of government. We've gone from zero Black governors or major-city mayors to our first elected governor, L. Douglas Wilder, and our first big-city heads, Carl Stokes and Richard Hatcher. We have witnessed Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas take their places as justices on the nation's highest court. We've watched our political muscle in Congress swell from two Blacks in 1951 to a power bloc nearly 40-members strong in 2001. And we have cheered when Sisters like Rep. Shirley Chisholm, Sen. Carol Moseley Braun and Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly rose to top roles in politics. Looking back, we have every reason to marvel at our meteoric progress. And while we still have a long way to go, we can look ahead with pride, confident that our greatest chapters in the political history of this nation are yet to come.
1951-1955--When JET begins publication in 1951, Rep. William Dawson of Chicago and Rep. Adam Clayton Powell of New York are the only two Blacks in U.S. Congress until 1955, when Charles C. Diggs Jr. of Detroit begins his first House term and boosts the number of Blacks in Congress to three, which, at that time, was the largest Black delegation since Reconstruction.
1951-1959
December 31, 1953--Hulan Jack becomes the 1st Black to hold a major city elective post when he is sworn in as Manhattan Borough president.
August 7, 1954--Charles H. Mahoney, a Detroit insurance executive, becomes the 1st Black to serve as a full and permanent delegate to the UN.
August 19, 1954--Ralph Bunche, statesman and educator, is named UN undersecretary general, the UN's second most powerful official.
February 5, 1958--Clifton R. Wharton Sr., diplomat, is confirmed as minister to Rumania, becoming the 1st Black to head a U.S. embassy in Europe.
May 20, 1958--Robert N.C. Nix of Pennsylvania is elected to Congress.
November 2, 1954--Charles C. Diggs Jr. of Detroit is elected Michigan's 1st Black congressman.
July 9, 1955--E. Frederic Morrow is named administrative aide to President Dwight Eisenhower, becoming the 1st Black named to an executive post in the White House.
1960-1969
November 1960--John F. Kennedy wins presidential election. Otis M. Smith is elected auditor general in Michigan, becoming 1st Black to gain a state cabinet post since the Reconstruction era.
November 1962--Augustus F. Hawkins of L.A. is elected to U.S. Congress, becoming the 1st Black congressman from the West. Gerald Lamb is elected treasurer of Connecticut.
November 22, 1963--President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson succeeds him.
July 2, 1964--President Johnson signs Civil Rights Act of 1964, which enforced the constitutional right to vote and prohibited discrimination in public facilities, public education and employment based on race, color, gender, national origin and religion.
November 3, 1964--John Conyers Jr. of Detroit is elected to Congress.
February 23, 1965--Constance Baker Motley elected Manhattan Borough president and the 1st Black woman to hold a top post in a major city.
August 6, 1965--President Johnson signs Voting Rights Act of 1965, authorizing federal examiners to be sent to the South to register Black voters, and suspended all literacy tests. The Voting Rights Act was readopted in 1970, 1975 and 1982, when it was renewed until 2007.
March 9, 1966--Andrew F. Brimmer becomes 1st Black to serve on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve.
August 30, 1967--Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as 1st Black Supreme Court justice.
January 3, 1961--Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. of New York is named the 1st Black chair of the House Education and Labor Committee.
November 10, 1960--Andrew Hatcher is named President Kennedy's associate press secretary.
May 19, 1965--Patricia Roberts Harris is named ambassador to Luxembourg, becoming the 1st Black female ambassador.
January 18, 1966--Robert C. Weaver sworn in as secretary of Housing and Urban Development, becoming 1st Black member of a presidential Cabinet.
November 8, 1966--Edward W. Brooke is elected to the U.S. Senate, becoming 1st Black elected to the Senate by popular vote.
November 7, 1967--Carl B. Stokes of Cleveland and Richard G. Hatcher of Gary, IN, become 1st Blacks elected mayors of major U.S. cities in the 20th century.
August 28, 1968--the Rev. Channing E. Phillips becomes 1st Black nominated for president at a major national political convention. A favorite-son of the D.C. delegation, he received 67 1/2 votes on the first ballot at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
November 5, 1968--Shirley Chisholm of New York is 1st Black woman representative elected to Congress, and a record number of Blacks (10) are elected to the 91st Congress that year. Joining Chisholm were two first-time representatives, William L. Clay (MO) and Louis Stokes (OH), and six incumbents: John Conyers (MI), William L. Dawson (IL), Charles C. Diggs (MI), Augustus Hawkins (CA), Robert N.C. Nix (PA) and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (NY), who was re-elected by Harlem voters in spite of his earlier expulsion by the House in 1967.
1970-1979
June 16, 1970--Kenneth A. Gibson is elected 1st Black mayor of Newark, NJ.
June 23, 1970--Charles Rangel defeats incumbent Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in primary.
November 3, 1970--Twelve Blacks are elected to the 92nd Congress, including five new congressmen: George W. Collins (IL), Ronald Dellums (CA), Ralph H. Metcalfe (IL), Parren Mitchell (MD) and Charles Rangel (NY). Richard H. Austin was elected Michigan secretary of state.
January 4, 1971--Dr. Melvin H. Evans is inaugurated as 1st elected governor of Virgin Islands.
January 6, 1971--Cecil Partee is named president pro tem of the Illinois Senate, becoming 1st Black to hold the post in a state senate in 20th century.
February 2, 1971--Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) is formed by Blacks in the U.S. House.
March 23, 1971--Rev. Walter Fauntroy, former aide of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., becomes 1st nonvoting congressional delegate from D.C. since Reconstruction.
January 25, 1972--Rep. Shirley Chisholm makes a bid for the U.S. presidency.
June 24, 1972--Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, California assemblywoman, is named co-chair of Democratic National Convention of 1972, the 1st Black to chair a national political convention.
September 3, 1972--Johnny Ford is elected mayor of Tuskegee, AL, and A.J. Cooper wins the mayoral seat in Prichard, AL.
November 1972--President Nixon is re-elected. Sixteen Blacks are elected to Congress, including three newcomers: Barbara Jordan (TX), Yvonne Brathwaite Burke (CA), and Andrew Young (GA). Young later would become a U.S. ambassador and mayor of Atlanta.
December 8, 1972--Rep. George W. Collins (D-IL), elected to Congress in 1970, dies in airplane crash near Midway Airport in Chicago. His wife, Cardiss R. Collins, is elected to fill his seat. She serves nearly 25 years.
December 1972--Atty. Jewel Lafontant becomes 1st Black woman named deputy solicitor general of the U.S.
May 9, 1974--Rep. John Conyers and Rep. Barbara Jordan, along with other members of the House Judiciary Committee, open hearings on impeachment of President Nixon in the Watergate controversy. In August, President Nixon resigns and is succeeded by Vice President Gerald Ford.
November 1974--Walter E. Washington becomes 1st elected mayor of Washington, D.C., in the 20th century.
November 1974--State Sen. Mervyn M. Dymally of California and State Sen. George L. Brown of Colorado become 1st Black lieutenant governors in the 20th century. Harold Ford of Memphis, TN, is elected to the U.S. House. Henry E. Parker is elected treasurer for Connecticut.
September 2, 1975--Joseph W. Hatchett of Florida is sworn in as 1st Black state Supreme Court justice in the South in the 20th century.
November 2, 1976--Jimmy Carter, former governor of Georgia, is elected president. Seventeen Black congressmen are re-elected.
December 16, 1976--Rep. Andrew Young of Georgia is named U.S. ambassador and chief delegate to the United Nations.
March 8, 1977--Henry L. Marsh III is elected 1st Black mayor of Richmond, VA.
May 23, 1977--K. Leroy Irvis is named 1st Black speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly.
November 12, 1977--Ernest N. Morial becomes 1st Black mayor of New Orleans.
1978--Roland W. Burris is elected comptroller for Illinois and Vel R. Phillips is elected secretary of state of Wisconsin.
May 29, 1973--Thomas Bradley is elected 1st Black mayor of Los Angeles.
October 16, 1973--Maynard Jackson becomes 1st Black mayor of Atlanta.
November 6, 1973--Coleman Young is elected 1st Black mayor of Detroit.
January 14, 1975--William T. Coleman is named 1st Black secretary of transportation.
July 12, 1976--Rep. Barbara Jordan of Texas gives main address at the Democratic National Convention, becoming 1st Black keynote speaker of a national political convention.
December 21, 1976--Patricia Roberts Harris is named U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development by President Carter, becoming 1st Black woman to hold a Cabinet post. In 1979 she is named Health, Education and Welfare secretary and becomes the first Black to hold two successive Cabinet posts.
November 1978--Five new Black congressmen are elected (l-r): William Gray III (PA), Bennett Stewart (IL), Melvin Evans (Virgin Islands), Julian Dixon (CA) and George "Mickey" Leland (TX).
October 30, 1979--Richard Arrington becomes 1st Black mayor of Birmingham, AL.
1980-1989
November 4, 1980--Ronald Reagan is elected president of United States.
December 1, 1980--Willie L. Brown is elected as 1st Black speaker of the California Assembly.
January 22, 1981--Samuel Pierce is named secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
October 1981--Andrew Young becomes the 2nd Black mayor of Atlanta. Edward M. McIntrye is elected 1st Black mayor of Augusta, GA.
November 1981--Thurman L. Milner is elected mayor of Hartford, CT, and James Chase is elected mayor of Spokane, WA. Four new Black congressmen are elected: Mervyn Dymally (CA), Augustus Savage (IL), Harold Washington (IL) and George W. Crockett Jr. (MI).
November 1982-- Four new Black members are elected to Congress: Katie Hall (IN), Edolphus Towns (NY), Alan Wheat (MO) and Major Owens (NY), who succeeded Shirley Chisholm.
August 23, 1983--Labor leader Charles A. Hayes wins election to fill Harold Washington's House seat.
November 8, 1983--W. Wilson Goode becomes 1st Black mayor of Philadelphia.
March 13, 1984--Republican James L Usry is elected 1st Black mayor of Atlantic City, NJ.
March 1, 1986--Sidney Barthelemy is elected mayor of New Orleans.
May 13, 1986--Sharpe James defeats incumbent Mayor Kenneth Gibson in Newark, NJ, election.
October 15, 1986--Edward Perkins confirmed as America's 1st Black ambassador to South Africa.
November 1986--Four new Black Congressmen are elected: Mike Espy, Mississippi's 1st Black since Reconstruction, Rev. Floyd Flake (NY), John Lewis (GA) and Kweisi Mfume (MD).
November 3, 1987--Kurt L. Schmoke is elected mayor of Baltimore.
April 29, 1983--Rep. Harold Washington is sworn in as 1st Black mayor of Chicago.
November 3, 1983--Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. announces bid for U.S. presidency and his campaign generates unprecedented fervor.
January 4, 1985--Rep. William H. Gray (D-PA) is elected 1st Black chair of the House Budget Committee, the top congressional rank then held by a Black.
November 7, 1989--L. Douglas Wilder is elected governor of Virginia, becoming 1st Black governor of any U.S. state.
1990-2001
January 15, 1991--Roland Burris is sworn in as 1st Black attorney general of Illinois.
March 26, 1991--Rev. Emmanuel Cleaver is elected 1st Black mayor of Kansas City, MO.
July 1, 1991--Clarence Thomas is nominated to Supreme Court. In October, he is confirmed as the 106th Supreme Court justice and 2nd Black to serve in post.
November 2, 1993--Sharon Sayles Belton is elected 1st Black mayor of Minneapolis.
December 12, 1995--Jesse Jackson Jr. of Chicago is elected to Congress.
June 3, 1997--Harvey Johnson is elected 1st Black mayor of Jackson, MS.
November 7, 2000--Vote deadlock occurs in presidential election between Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush.
December 13, 2000--Vice President Gore concedes election to George W. Bush.
September 11, 1990--Sharon Pratt Kelly is elected mayor of D.C., the 1st Black woman to lead a major U.S. city.
June 18, 1991--Wellington Webb is elected mayor of Denver.
November 3, 1991--Since the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) was first formed in 1971, it has grown to become a powerful force in Congress. On this day it gained 16 new members in the 103rd Congress, expanding to 40 members, then the largest bloc of Blacks in Congress in history.
November 3, 1992--Carol Moseley Braun of Chicago becomes 1st Black female senator.
December 12-21, 1992--Newly elected President Bill Clinton (c) appoints Blacks to his Cabinet and a record number of minorities to key positions, including (above, l-r) Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown, Hazel O'Leary (Energy), Mike Espy (Agriculture) and Joycelyn Elders (Surgeon General), who later was succeeded by David Satcher. Others named during Clinton's administration were Rodney Slater (Transportation), Jesse Brown (Veterans Affairs), who later was succeeded by Togo West, and Alexis Herman (Labor).
June 3, 1997--Harvey Johnson is elected 1st Black mayor of Jackson, MS.
January 20, 2001--Colin Powell, former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is confirmed by Senate as U.S. Secretary of State.
January 20, 2001--Stanford University political science professor Condoleezza Rice becomes 1st woman in history to serve as national security advisor for a U.S. president.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Johnson Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group
Awesome changes have taken place in American politics in the 50 years since our first JET issue rolled off the presses. Colossal changes, in fact, have catapulted Blacks from the "back of the bus" into the driver's seat at every level of government. We've gone from zero Black governors or major-city mayors to our first elected governor, L. Douglas Wilder, and our first big-city heads, Carl Stokes and Richard Hatcher. We have witnessed Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas take their places as justices on the nation's highest court. We've watched our political muscle in Congress swell from two Blacks in 1951 to a power bloc nearly 40-members strong in 2001. And we have cheered when Sisters like Rep. Shirley Chisholm, Sen. Carol Moseley Braun and Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly rose to top roles in politics. Looking back, we have every reason to marvel at our meteoric progress. And while we still have a long way to go, we can look ahead with pride, confident that our greatest chapters in the political history of this nation are yet to come.
1951-1955--When JET begins publication in 1951, Rep. William Dawson of Chicago and Rep. Adam Clayton Powell of New York are the only two Blacks in U.S. Congress until 1955, when Charles C. Diggs Jr. of Detroit begins his first House term and boosts the number of Blacks in Congress to three, which, at that time, was the largest Black delegation since Reconstruction.
1951-1959
December 31, 1953--Hulan Jack becomes the 1st Black to hold a major city elective post when he is sworn in as Manhattan Borough president.
August 7, 1954--Charles H. Mahoney, a Detroit insurance executive, becomes the 1st Black to serve as a full and permanent delegate to the UN.
August 19, 1954--Ralph Bunche, statesman and educator, is named UN undersecretary general, the UN's second most powerful official.
February 5, 1958--Clifton R. Wharton Sr., diplomat, is confirmed as minister to Rumania, becoming the 1st Black to head a U.S. embassy in Europe.
May 20, 1958--Robert N.C. Nix of Pennsylvania is elected to Congress.
November 2, 1954--Charles C. Diggs Jr. of Detroit is elected Michigan's 1st Black congressman.
July 9, 1955--E. Frederic Morrow is named administrative aide to President Dwight Eisenhower, becoming the 1st Black named to an executive post in the White House.
1960-1969
November 1960--John F. Kennedy wins presidential election. Otis M. Smith is elected auditor general in Michigan, becoming 1st Black to gain a state cabinet post since the Reconstruction era.
November 1962--Augustus F. Hawkins of L.A. is elected to U.S. Congress, becoming the 1st Black congressman from the West. Gerald Lamb is elected treasurer of Connecticut.
November 22, 1963--President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson succeeds him.
July 2, 1964--President Johnson signs Civil Rights Act of 1964, which enforced the constitutional right to vote and prohibited discrimination in public facilities, public education and employment based on race, color, gender, national origin and religion.
November 3, 1964--John Conyers Jr. of Detroit is elected to Congress.
February 23, 1965--Constance Baker Motley elected Manhattan Borough president and the 1st Black woman to hold a top post in a major city.
August 6, 1965--President Johnson signs Voting Rights Act of 1965, authorizing federal examiners to be sent to the South to register Black voters, and suspended all literacy tests. The Voting Rights Act was readopted in 1970, 1975 and 1982, when it was renewed until 2007.
March 9, 1966--Andrew F. Brimmer becomes 1st Black to serve on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve.
August 30, 1967--Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as 1st Black Supreme Court justice.
January 3, 1961--Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. of New York is named the 1st Black chair of the House Education and Labor Committee.
November 10, 1960--Andrew Hatcher is named President Kennedy's associate press secretary.
May 19, 1965--Patricia Roberts Harris is named ambassador to Luxembourg, becoming the 1st Black female ambassador.
January 18, 1966--Robert C. Weaver sworn in as secretary of Housing and Urban Development, becoming 1st Black member of a presidential Cabinet.
November 8, 1966--Edward W. Brooke is elected to the U.S. Senate, becoming 1st Black elected to the Senate by popular vote.
November 7, 1967--Carl B. Stokes of Cleveland and Richard G. Hatcher of Gary, IN, become 1st Blacks elected mayors of major U.S. cities in the 20th century.
August 28, 1968--the Rev. Channing E. Phillips becomes 1st Black nominated for president at a major national political convention. A favorite-son of the D.C. delegation, he received 67 1/2 votes on the first ballot at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
November 5, 1968--Shirley Chisholm of New York is 1st Black woman representative elected to Congress, and a record number of Blacks (10) are elected to the 91st Congress that year. Joining Chisholm were two first-time representatives, William L. Clay (MO) and Louis Stokes (OH), and six incumbents: John Conyers (MI), William L. Dawson (IL), Charles C. Diggs (MI), Augustus Hawkins (CA), Robert N.C. Nix (PA) and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (NY), who was re-elected by Harlem voters in spite of his earlier expulsion by the House in 1967.
1970-1979
June 16, 1970--Kenneth A. Gibson is elected 1st Black mayor of Newark, NJ.
June 23, 1970--Charles Rangel defeats incumbent Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in primary.
November 3, 1970--Twelve Blacks are elected to the 92nd Congress, including five new congressmen: George W. Collins (IL), Ronald Dellums (CA), Ralph H. Metcalfe (IL), Parren Mitchell (MD) and Charles Rangel (NY). Richard H. Austin was elected Michigan secretary of state.
January 4, 1971--Dr. Melvin H. Evans is inaugurated as 1st elected governor of Virgin Islands.
January 6, 1971--Cecil Partee is named president pro tem of the Illinois Senate, becoming 1st Black to hold the post in a state senate in 20th century.
February 2, 1971--Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) is formed by Blacks in the U.S. House.
March 23, 1971--Rev. Walter Fauntroy, former aide of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., becomes 1st nonvoting congressional delegate from D.C. since Reconstruction.
January 25, 1972--Rep. Shirley Chisholm makes a bid for the U.S. presidency.
June 24, 1972--Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, California assemblywoman, is named co-chair of Democratic National Convention of 1972, the 1st Black to chair a national political convention.
September 3, 1972--Johnny Ford is elected mayor of Tuskegee, AL, and A.J. Cooper wins the mayoral seat in Prichard, AL.
November 1972--President Nixon is re-elected. Sixteen Blacks are elected to Congress, including three newcomers: Barbara Jordan (TX), Yvonne Brathwaite Burke (CA), and Andrew Young (GA). Young later would become a U.S. ambassador and mayor of Atlanta.
December 8, 1972--Rep. George W. Collins (D-IL), elected to Congress in 1970, dies in airplane crash near Midway Airport in Chicago. His wife, Cardiss R. Collins, is elected to fill his seat. She serves nearly 25 years.
December 1972--Atty. Jewel Lafontant becomes 1st Black woman named deputy solicitor general of the U.S.
May 9, 1974--Rep. John Conyers and Rep. Barbara Jordan, along with other members of the House Judiciary Committee, open hearings on impeachment of President Nixon in the Watergate controversy. In August, President Nixon resigns and is succeeded by Vice President Gerald Ford.
November 1974--Walter E. Washington becomes 1st elected mayor of Washington, D.C., in the 20th century.
November 1974--State Sen. Mervyn M. Dymally of California and State Sen. George L. Brown of Colorado become 1st Black lieutenant governors in the 20th century. Harold Ford of Memphis, TN, is elected to the U.S. House. Henry E. Parker is elected treasurer for Connecticut.
September 2, 1975--Joseph W. Hatchett of Florida is sworn in as 1st Black state Supreme Court justice in the South in the 20th century.
November 2, 1976--Jimmy Carter, former governor of Georgia, is elected president. Seventeen Black congressmen are re-elected.
December 16, 1976--Rep. Andrew Young of Georgia is named U.S. ambassador and chief delegate to the United Nations.
March 8, 1977--Henry L. Marsh III is elected 1st Black mayor of Richmond, VA.
May 23, 1977--K. Leroy Irvis is named 1st Black speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly.
November 12, 1977--Ernest N. Morial becomes 1st Black mayor of New Orleans.
1978--Roland W. Burris is elected comptroller for Illinois and Vel R. Phillips is elected secretary of state of Wisconsin.
May 29, 1973--Thomas Bradley is elected 1st Black mayor of Los Angeles.
October 16, 1973--Maynard Jackson becomes 1st Black mayor of Atlanta.
November 6, 1973--Coleman Young is elected 1st Black mayor of Detroit.
January 14, 1975--William T. Coleman is named 1st Black secretary of transportation.
July 12, 1976--Rep. Barbara Jordan of Texas gives main address at the Democratic National Convention, becoming 1st Black keynote speaker of a national political convention.
December 21, 1976--Patricia Roberts Harris is named U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development by President Carter, becoming 1st Black woman to hold a Cabinet post. In 1979 she is named Health, Education and Welfare secretary and becomes the first Black to hold two successive Cabinet posts.
November 1978--Five new Black congressmen are elected (l-r): William Gray III (PA), Bennett Stewart (IL), Melvin Evans (Virgin Islands), Julian Dixon (CA) and George "Mickey" Leland (TX).
October 30, 1979--Richard Arrington becomes 1st Black mayor of Birmingham, AL.
1980-1989
November 4, 1980--Ronald Reagan is elected president of United States.
December 1, 1980--Willie L. Brown is elected as 1st Black speaker of the California Assembly.
January 22, 1981--Samuel Pierce is named secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
October 1981--Andrew Young becomes the 2nd Black mayor of Atlanta. Edward M. McIntrye is elected 1st Black mayor of Augusta, GA.
November 1981--Thurman L. Milner is elected mayor of Hartford, CT, and James Chase is elected mayor of Spokane, WA. Four new Black congressmen are elected: Mervyn Dymally (CA), Augustus Savage (IL), Harold Washington (IL) and George W. Crockett Jr. (MI).
November 1982-- Four new Black members are elected to Congress: Katie Hall (IN), Edolphus Towns (NY), Alan Wheat (MO) and Major Owens (NY), who succeeded Shirley Chisholm.
August 23, 1983--Labor leader Charles A. Hayes wins election to fill Harold Washington's House seat.
November 8, 1983--W. Wilson Goode becomes 1st Black mayor of Philadelphia.
March 13, 1984--Republican James L Usry is elected 1st Black mayor of Atlantic City, NJ.
March 1, 1986--Sidney Barthelemy is elected mayor of New Orleans.
May 13, 1986--Sharpe James defeats incumbent Mayor Kenneth Gibson in Newark, NJ, election.
October 15, 1986--Edward Perkins confirmed as America's 1st Black ambassador to South Africa.
November 1986--Four new Black Congressmen are elected: Mike Espy, Mississippi's 1st Black since Reconstruction, Rev. Floyd Flake (NY), John Lewis (GA) and Kweisi Mfume (MD).
November 3, 1987--Kurt L. Schmoke is elected mayor of Baltimore.
April 29, 1983--Rep. Harold Washington is sworn in as 1st Black mayor of Chicago.
November 3, 1983--Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. announces bid for U.S. presidency and his campaign generates unprecedented fervor.
January 4, 1985--Rep. William H. Gray (D-PA) is elected 1st Black chair of the House Budget Committee, the top congressional rank then held by a Black.
November 7, 1989--L. Douglas Wilder is elected governor of Virginia, becoming 1st Black governor of any U.S. state.
1990-2001
January 15, 1991--Roland Burris is sworn in as 1st Black attorney general of Illinois.
March 26, 1991--Rev. Emmanuel Cleaver is elected 1st Black mayor of Kansas City, MO.
July 1, 1991--Clarence Thomas is nominated to Supreme Court. In October, he is confirmed as the 106th Supreme Court justice and 2nd Black to serve in post.
November 2, 1993--Sharon Sayles Belton is elected 1st Black mayor of Minneapolis.
December 12, 1995--Jesse Jackson Jr. of Chicago is elected to Congress.
June 3, 1997--Harvey Johnson is elected 1st Black mayor of Jackson, MS.
November 7, 2000--Vote deadlock occurs in presidential election between Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush.
December 13, 2000--Vice President Gore concedes election to George W. Bush.
September 11, 1990--Sharon Pratt Kelly is elected mayor of D.C., the 1st Black woman to lead a major U.S. city.
June 18, 1991--Wellington Webb is elected mayor of Denver.
November 3, 1991--Since the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) was first formed in 1971, it has grown to become a powerful force in Congress. On this day it gained 16 new members in the 103rd Congress, expanding to 40 members, then the largest bloc of Blacks in Congress in history.
November 3, 1992--Carol Moseley Braun of Chicago becomes 1st Black female senator.
December 12-21, 1992--Newly elected President Bill Clinton (c) appoints Blacks to his Cabinet and a record number of minorities to key positions, including (above, l-r) Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown, Hazel O'Leary (Energy), Mike Espy (Agriculture) and Joycelyn Elders (Surgeon General), who later was succeeded by David Satcher. Others named during Clinton's administration were Rodney Slater (Transportation), Jesse Brown (Veterans Affairs), who later was succeeded by Togo West, and Alexis Herman (Labor).
June 3, 1997--Harvey Johnson is elected 1st Black mayor of Jackson, MS.
January 20, 2001--Colin Powell, former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is confirmed by Senate as U.S. Secretary of State.
January 20, 2001--Stanford University political science professor Condoleezza Rice becomes 1st woman in history to serve as national security advisor for a U.S. president.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Johnson Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group
