List of African-American officeholders (1900–1959)

The following is a list of African-American holders of public office from 1900 to 1959. This period saw setbacks for African Americans following the Reconstruction era after "Redeemer" Democrats retook control of the South and restored white supremacy in government. African-Americans were largely barred from voting and almost entirely obstructed from public office in former Confederate states under the Jim Crow regime. The number of African American officeholders would dramatically increase following the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Notably, Minnie Buckingham Harper became the first African-American woman to serve in a state legislature when she was appointed in 1928 to serve out the remainder of her husband's term in the West Virginia House of Delegates. Crystal Bird Fauset was the first Black woman elected to a legislature when was elected to the Pennsylvania House in 1938.

House of Representatives

 * Oscar Stanton De Priest (1929-1953)
 * Arthur Wergs Mitchell (1935-1943)
 * William L. Dawson (1943-1970)
 * Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (1945-1971)
 * Charles Diggs (1955-1980)
 * Robert N. C. Nix Sr. (1958-1979)

House

 * Blanche McSmith (1959)

Assembly

 * Frederick Madison Roberts (1918)
 * Augustus Hawkins (1934-1960)

Senate

 * George L. Brown (1957)

House

 * George L. Brown (1955)

House

 * Wilfred X. Johnson (1958), the Wilfred X. Johnson House where he lived is listed on the National Register of Historic Places

House

 * William J. Winchester (1948)

House

 * H. F. McKay, state representative from Liberty County (1900-1901)
 * Lectured Crawford, state representative from McIntosh County (1886-1887, 1890–1891, 1900–1901)
 * W. H. Rogers, state representative from McIntosh County (1902-1908)
 * Amos Rogers
 * Hercules Wilson
 * Anthony Wilson, state representative from Camden County, Georgia (1884-1888?)
 * Frasier, first name unknown, state representative from Liberty County, Georgia
 * Samuel A. McIvor, state representative for Liberty County, Georgia

Senate

 * Adelbert H. Roberts (1924)
 * William E. King (1934)
 * William A. Wallace (1938)
 * Christopher C. Wimbish (1942)
 * Fred J. Smith (1954)

House

 * John G. Jones (1900)
 * Edward D. Green (1904)
 * Alexander Lane (1907)
 * Robert R. Jackson (1912)
 * Sheadrick B. Turner (1914)
 * Benjamin H. Lucas (1916)
 * Warren B. Douglass (1918)
 * George T. Kersey (1922)
 * Charles A. Griffin (1924)
 * William J. Warfield (1928)
 * Charles J. Jenkins (1930)
 * Harris B. Gaines (1930)
 * Aubrey H. Smith (1934)
 * Ernest A. Greene (1936)
 * Richard A. Harewood (1936)
 * Andrew A. Torrence (1938)
 * Dudley S. Martin (1940)
 * Corneal A. Davis (1943)
 * Christopher C. Wimbish (1943)
 * Charles T. Sykes (1944)
 * Edward A. Welters (1944)
 * Kenneth E. Wilson (1954)
 * William H. Robinson (1954)
 * J. Horace Gardner (1956)
 * Elwood Graham (1956)
 * Floy Clements (1958)
 * Cecil A. Partee (1957)
 * Charles F. Armstrong (1957)

Senate

 * Robert Brokenburr (1940)

House

 * Harry H. Richardson (1932)
 * Robert L. Stanton (1932)
 * Marshall A. Talley (1932)
 * James S. Hunter (1940)
 * Jesse L. Dickinson (1942, 1944)
 * Wilbur H. Grant (1942)

House

 * W. M. Blount (1929-1930, 1933–1936)
 * William H. Towers (1937-1939)

House

 * Charles W. Anderson (1936)

Senate

 * Harry A. Cole (1955-1966)

House

 * Emory Cole (1955)
 * Truly Hatchett (1955)
 * Verda Welcome (1958 )
 * Irma George Dixon (1958 )

House

 * William H. Lewis (1902)

Senate

 * Charles A. Roxborough (1930)
 * Charles Diggs Sr. (1937-1944)
 * Cora Brown (1952)

House

 * James W. Ames (1901)
 * Horace A. White (1941)
 * Charline White (1950)

House

 * Walthall M. Moore (1921)
 * Edwin F. Kenswil (1943)
 * William A. Massingale (1947-1948)
 * Walter V. Lay (1949-1954)
 * James Troupe Sr. (1954)

Senate, then Unicameral Legislature

 * John Adams Jr. (1937)

House (prior to 1937)

 * T. L. Barnett (1924)
 * A. A. McMillan (1924)
 * John Andrew Singleton (1927)
 * Johnny Owen (1933)
 * John Adams Jr. (1935)

General Assembly

 * Walter G. Alexander (1920)
 * Oliver Randolph (1922)
 * James L. Baxter (1927)
 * Frank S. Hargrave (1930-1931, 1933–1935, 1937-?, 1938–1942)
 * J. Mercer Burrell (1933-1937)
 * Guy R. Moorehead (1937-)
 * James Otto Hill (1943-1947)
 * Madaline A. Williams (1957)

Senate

 * Julius A. Archibald (1953)

State Assembly

 * Edward A. Johnson (1917)
 * John C. Hawkins (1919)
 * Henri W. Shields (1922)
 * Pope B. Billups (1925)
 * Lamar Perkins (1930)
 * Francis E. Rivers (1930)
 * James E. Stevens (1930)
 * William T. Andrews (1934)
 * Robert W. Justice (1935)
 * Daniel Burrows (1938)
 * Hulan E. Jack (1940)
 * William E. Prince (1944)
 * Bessie A. Buchanan (1955)

House

 * George W. Hayes (1901)
 * H. T. Eubanks (1904)
 * A. Lee Beaty (1919)
 * Henry Higgins (1919)
 * Harry E. Davis (1921)
 * E. W. B. Curry (1924)
 * Perry B. Jackson (1928)
 * Chester K. Gillespie (1933-1935, 1943–1945)
 * Richard P. McClain (1934)
 * David D. Turpeau (1940)
 * Sandy F. Ray (1942)
 * Jacob Ashburn Sr. (1944)

House

 * A. C. Hamlin (1908)

House

 * Harry W. Bass (1911)
 * John C. Asbury (1920)
 * Andrew F. Stephens (1920)
 * William H. Fuller (1924)
 * Samuel B. Hart (1924)
 * Walter E. Tucker (1930)
 * John William Harris (1932)
 * Homer S. Brown (1934)
 * Richard A. Cooper (1934)
 * Walter K. Jackson (!934)
 * Hobson R. Reynolds (1935-1936, 1939–1940)
 * Marshall L. Shephard (1935-1938, 1941–1942)
 * William A. Allmond (1936)
 * John H. Brigerman (1937-1938, 1943–1944)
 * Samuel D. Holmes (1936)
 * Edwin F. Thompson (1936)
 * E. Washington Rhodes (1938)
 * Crystal Bird Fauset (1938)
 * Ralph T. Jefferson (1940)
 * Edward C. Young (1940)
 * Dennie W. Hoggard (1943-1946, 1949–1954)
 * Lewis W. Mintess (1943-1944, 1947–1952)
 * Thomas P. Trent (1943-1946, 1950–1951)
 * Lee P. Myhan (1945-1946)
 * J. Thompson Pettigrew (1945-1946, 1949–1956)
 * Susie Monroe (1949-1968)

House

 * William J. Anderson (1944)

House

 * John H. Ryan (1933)
 * Charles Stokes

House

 * James M. Ellis (1902)
 * Howard Railey (1904)
 * Ebenezer Howard Harper (1917)
 * Harry J. Capehart (1919–1925)
 * Minnie Buckingham Harper (1928, appointed)

Assembly

 * Lucian H. Palmer (1906)
 * Cleveland Moland Colbert (1942), elected but decertified after recount
 * Leroy J. Simmons (1944)

Illinois

 * Oscar Stanton De Priest, Cook County Board of Commissioners (1904–1908), Chicago City Council (1915–1917, 1943–1947)
 * Louis B. Anderson, Chicago City Council (1923-1933)
 * William L. Dawson, Chicago City Council (1933-1939)
 * Earl B. Dickerson, Chicago City Council (1939-1943)
 * Claude Holman, Chicago City Council (1955-1973)

Michigan

 * William T. Patrick, Detroit City Council (1957-1963)

New York

 * Adam Clayton Powell Jr., New York City Council (1942-1945)
 * Benjamin J. Davis Jr., New York City Council (1945-1949)

Ohio

 * Thomas W. Fleming, Member, Cleveland City Council