List of African-American U.S. state firsts

African Americans are a demographic minority in the United States. African-Americans' initial achievements in various fields historically establish a foothold, providing a precedent for more widespread cultural change. The shorthand phrase for this is "breaking the color barrier."

In addition to major national- and international-level firsts, African-Americans have achieved firsts on a statewide basis.

19th century

 * 1832
 * First governor of African descent in what is now the US: Pío Pico, an Afro-Mexican, was the last governor of Alta California before it was ceded to the US. Like all Californios, Pico automatically became a US citizen in 1848. He was elected to the Los Angeles Common Council in 1853, but he did not assume office.


 * 1868
 * First elected African-American lieutenant governor: Oscar Dunn, Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana
 * First 33 African-American legislators in Georgia: see Original 33


 * 1870
 * May: First African-American acting governor: Oscar James Dunn of Louisiana from May until August 9, 1871, when sitting Governor Warmoth was incapacitated and chose to recuperate in Mississippi. (see also: Douglas Wilder, 1990)


 * 1872
 * First African-American governor of Louisiana: P. B. S. Pinchback (Also first in U.S.) (non-elected; see also Douglas Wilder, 1990)


 * 1873
 * First African-American Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives, and of any state legislature: John R. Lynch
 * First African American elected to the Tennessee General Assembly: Sampson W. Keeble


 * 1876
 * First African American elected to the Illinois General Assembly: John W. E. Thomas


 * 1878
 * First African American elected mayor in New York State (village president of Cleveland): Ned Sherman


 * 1879
 * First African American elected to the Wyoming Legislature: William Jefferson Hardin
 * First African American elected to the Ohio General Assembly: George Washington Williams


 * 1880
 * First African American elected to the Indiana General Assembly: James Sidney Hinton


 * 1885
 * First African American elected to the Rhode Island General Assembly: Mahlon Van Horne


 * 1889
 * First African-American female principal in Massachusetts and the Northeast: Maria Louise Baldwin, supervising white faculty and a predominantly white student body at the Agassiz Grammar School in Cambridge (renamed the Maria L. Baldwin School in 2004).


 * 1893
 * First African-American member elected to the Michigan House of Representatives: William Webb Ferguson


 * 1898
 * First African-American member elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives: John Francis Wheaton

20th century

 * 1906
 * First African-American elected to the Wisconsin Legislature: Lucian H. Palmer


 * 1917
 * First African American to enter the University of Oregon: Mabel Byrd


 * 1918
 * First African-American elected to political office in California: Frederick Madison Roberts, California State Assembly


 * 1920
 * First African-American elected to the Missouri legislature: Walthall Moore


 * 1924
 * First African-American elected to the Illinois Senate: Adelbert Roberts


 * 1930
 * First African Americans elected as judges in the state of New York: James S. Watson and Charles E. Toney


 * 1938
 * First African-American woman to be elected to the Pennsylvania General Assembly and to any state legislature: Crystal Bird Fauset


 * 1939
 * First African-American woman to own a cosmetology school in Iowa: Pauline Brown Humphrey


 * 1948
 * First African American elected to the Delaware House of Representatives: William J. Winchester


 * 1950
 * First African-American woman to be elected to the West Virginia Legislature: Elizabeth Simpson Drewry
 * First African-American woman to be elected to the Michigan Legislature: Charline White


 * 1952
 * First African American to graduate from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences: Edith Irby Jones


 * 1955
 * First African-American woman elected to the New York State Legislature: Bessie A. Buchanan
 * First African-American elected to the Maryland State Senate: Harry A. Cole


 * 1956
 * First African-American student to attend the University of Alabama: Autherine Lucy Her expulsion from the institution later that year led to the university's President Oliver Carmichael's resignation.
 * First African American to teach at college or university level in California: Betty Smith Williams.


 * 1957
 * First African-American woman elected to the New Jersey Legislature: Madaline A. Williams


 * 1958
 * First African-American women elected to the Maryland General Assembly: Verda F. Welcome and Irma George Dixon
 * First African-American woman elected to the Illinois General Assembly: Floy Clements
 * First African American to graduate from the University of Maryland: Elaine J. Coates


 * 1959
 * First African American to graduate from the University of Maryland: Elaine J. Coates


 * 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.


 * 1963
 * First African American elected to the Delaware Senate: Herman Holloway


 * 1964
 * First African-American woman elected to the Indiana Legislature: Daisy Riley Lloyd
 * First African-American woman elected to the New York State Senate: Constance Baker Motley


 * 1966
 * First African-American woman elected to the Texas Legislature: Barbara Jordan
 * First African American known lesbian state legislator: Barbara Jordan
 * First African-American woman elected to the Georgia General Assembly: Grace Towns Hamilton
 * First African-American appointed to New York State Board of Regents: Kenneth Bancroft Clark
 * First African-American senator from Massachusetts: Edward Brooke. (Also first post-Reconstruction African American elected to the U.S. Senate and first African American elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote).
 * First African-American woman in the California Legislature: Yvonne Brathwaite Burke
 * First African-American woman elected to the Tennessee General Assembly: Dorothy Lavinia Brown
 * First African-American woman elected to the Arizona Legislature: Ethel Maynard


 * 1967
 * First African-American woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar: Marian Wright Edelman
 * First African-American woman elected to the Montana Legislature: Geraldine W. Travis


 * 1968
 * First African-American elected to the Florida Legislature since Reconstruction: Joe Lang Kershaw


 * 1969
 * First African-American elected mayor of a Mississippi city since Reconstruction: Charles Evers, in Fayette, Mississippi


 * 1970
 * First African-Americans elected to the Alaska Legislature: Willard L. Bowman and Joshua Wright
 * First African-American woman elected to the Delaware General Assembly: Henrietta R. Johnson
 * First African-American woman elected to the Florida Legislature: Gwen Cherry


 * 1971
 * First African-American woman elected to the Washington Legislature: Peggy Maxie


 * 1972
 * First African-American elected to the Wisconsin Senate: Monroe Swan


 * 1973
 * First African-American woman elected to the Massachusetts General Court: Doris Bunte
 * First African-American woman elected to the Connecticut General Assembly: Margaret E. Morton


 * 1974
 * First African-American woman elected to the Michigan State Board of Education: Barbara Roberts Mason
 * First African-American man elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives: Henry Richardson


 * 1975
 * First African-American woman elected to the South Carolina Legislature: Juanita Goggins


 * 1976
 * First African-American appointed as a judge in Federal District Court in Virginia: Robert H. Cooley III (1939–1998), appointed to the Eastern District
 * First African-American elected mayor in New Mexico: Albert Johnson


 * First African-American mayor in New Mexico: Albert Johnson
 * 1977
 * First African-American to serve on the California Supreme Court: Wiley W. Manuel
 * First African-American speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives, and of any state legislature in the United States since Reconstruction: K. Leroy Irvis
 * First African-American woman elected to the Wisconsin Legislature: Marcia P. Coggs
 * First African-American woman elected to the Illinois Senate: Earlean Collins


 * 1978
 * First African-American appointed to the office of Michigan State Treasurer: Loren E. Monroe
 * First African-American woman elected to the Ohio Legislature: Helen Rankin


 * 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.


 * 1981
 * First African-American woman elected to the Arkansas General Assembly: Irma Hunter Brown
 * First African-American elected to the Utah Senate: Terry Lee Williams


 * 1984
 * First African-American elected to a statewide office in Georgia: Robert Benham, Supreme Court of Georgia
 * First African-American woman to be elected to the Virginia General Assembly: Yvonne B. Miller


 * 1985
 * First African-American woman to be elected to the Mississippi Legislature: Alyce Clarke
 * First African-American woman elected to the Oregon Legislature: Margaret Carter


 * 1987
 * First African-American justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court: Robert D. Glass
 * 1988
 * First African-American elected to the Wyoming Legislature: Harriet Elizabeth Byrd


 * 1990
 * First African-American governor of Virginia: Douglas Wilder (also first elected governor in US; see also P. B. S. Pinchback, 1872)
 * First African-American woman elected to the Alaska Legislature: Bettye Davis


 * 1991
 * First African-American woman elected to the Louisiana State Senate: Diana Bajoie


 * 1992
 * First African-American elected to a statewide office in Indiana: Pamela Carter, office of Attorney General
 * First African-American Minnesota Supreme Court justice: Alan Page


 * 1993
 * First African-American senator from Illinois: Carol Moseley Braun. (Also first African-American woman elected to the United States Senate, the first African-American U.S. Senator for the Democratic Party, the first woman to defeat an incumbent U.S. Senator in an election, and the first female Senator from Illinois).


 * 1994
 * First African-American woman elected to the Nevada Legislature: Bernice Mathews
 * First African-American woman elected to the Delaware Senate: Margaret Rose Henry


 * 1996
 * First African-American woman elected to the Oregon Legislature: Avel Gordly


 * 1998
 * First African-American woman elected State Treasurer and first African-American woman elected statewide in Connecticut: Denise Nappier


 * First African-American elected to office of Attorney General Georgia: Thurbert E. Baker

21st century



 * 2001
 * First African-American woman elected to the Minnesota Legislature: Neva Walker


 * 2002
 * First African-American lieutenant governor of Maryland and first elected to statewide office in Maryland: Michael Steele (see also: 2009)


 * 2004
 * First African-American District Attorney in California: Kamala Harris (San Francisco) (see also: 2010, 2017)
 * First African-American Oklahoma Supreme Court justice: Tom Colbert
 * First African-American Wisconsin Supreme Court justice: Louis B. Butler
 * First African-American Auditor of Accounts of Vermont and first elected to statewide office in Vermont: Randy Brock
 * First African-American congresswoman elected in Wisconsin's history: Gwen Moore


 * 2006
 * First African-American elected governor of Massachusetts: Deval Patrick
 * First African-American lieutenant governor of New York: David Paterson


 * 2007
 * First African-American appointed State Treasurer of New Jersey: Michellene Davis


 * 2008
 * First African-American woman elected Speaker of the California State Assembly: Karen Bass
 * First African-American governor of New York State: David Paterson (elected as lieutenant governor, succeeded on resignation of previous governor)
 * First African-American women elected to the Nebraska Legislature: Tanya Cook and Brenda Council


 * 2009
 * First bicameral state legislature to have both chambers headed simultaneously by African Americans: Peter Groff and Terrance Carroll of Colorado.


 * 2010
 * First African-American elected Attorney General of California: Kamala Harris (see also: 2004, 2017)
 * First African-American Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court: Roderick L. Ireland
 * First African-American elected to the Idaho Legislature: Cherie Buckner-Webb


 * 2012
 * First African-American elected to the Idaho Senate: Cherie Buckner-Webb


 * 2013
 * First African-American senator from South Carolina: Tim Scott (Also the first African-American to serve both houses of the U.S. Congress.)
 * First African-American woman to be appointed to a seat on the New York Court of Appeals: Sheila Abdus-Salaam.
 * First African-American senator from New Jersey: Cory Booker


 * 2014
 * First African-American senator elected from the South since Reconstruction: Tim Scott


 * 2015
 * First African-American elected Speaker of the New York State Assembly: Carl Heastie
 * First African-American Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky and first elected to statewide office in Kentucky: Jenean Hampton
 * First African-American woman elected to the Utah Legislature: Sandra Hollins


 * 2017
 * First African-American United States Senator from California: Kamala Harris (see also: 2004, 2010)
 * First African-American elected lieutenant governor of New Jersey: Sheila Oliver
 * First African-American out trans woman to be elected to public office in the United States: Andrea Jenkins


 * 2018
 * First female African-American major-party candidate for governor: Stacey Abrams, Georgia
 * First African-American elected Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Garlin Gilchrist
 * First African-American Attorney General of New York: Letitia James
 * First African-American and First woman elected Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates: Adrienne A. Jones
 * First African-American elected Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Juliana Stratton


 * 2019
 * First African-American elected Attorney General of Kentucky: Daniel Cameron
 * First Surgeon General for the State of California: Nadine Burke Harris


 * 2020


 * First African-American congresswoman elected in Missouri's history: Cori Bush
 * First African-American elected Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: Mark Robinson


 * 2021


 * First African-American senator from Georgia and first African-American Democratic Senator from the South: Raphael Warnock
 * First African-American woman to serve on the Supreme Court of Missouri: Robin Ransom
 * First African-American woman elected Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: Winsome Sears
 * First African-American woman to serve as Secretary of the State of Connecticut: Natalie Braswell


 * 2022
 * First African-American elected Attorney General of Maryland: Anthony Brown
 * First African-American woman elected Attorney General of Massachusetts: Andrea Campbell
 * First African-American elected Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: Austin Davis
 * First African-American congresswoman elected in Pennsylvania's history: Summer Lee
 * First African-American elected governor of Maryland: Wes Moore
 * First African-American elected Speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives: Joe Tate
 * First African-American woman elected Secretary of State of Connecticut: Stephanie Thomas
 * First African-American elected Secretary of State of California: Shirley Weber


 * 2023
 * First African-American woman elected Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives: Joanna McClinton