Edward Park Duplex was elected mayor of Wheatland, California in 1888 to become one of the first African American mayors in the United States and the first in the American West. Born on May 13, 1831 in New Haven, Connecticut to Prince Jr. and Adaline … Read MoreEdward Park Duplex (1831-1900)
Michael B. Coleman was the first African American Mayor of Columbus, Ohio, holding the post from January 1, 2000 to January 1, 2016. Coleman was born on November 18, 1954 in Indianapolis, Indiana to John Coleman, a medical doctor, and Joan Coleman, a local civil … Read MoreMichael B. Coleman (1954- )
Harold Washington, the first African American mayor of Chicago, Illinois, was born on April 15, 1922, to Roy Washington, a lawyer, Methodist minister and one of the first black precinct captains in Chicago. Washington’s mother Bertha Washington was a well-known singer in the city. Washington … Read MoreHarold Washington (1922-1987)
Harold G. Moss, leader and a founder of the Tacoma Urban League and past president of the Tacoma branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was the first African American to serve as mayor of Tacoma, Washington. He was also … Read MoreHarold Moss (1929-2020)
Berhanu Nega was elected mayor of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in the Ethiopian general elections, 2005. He is a founding chairman of the Rainbow Ethiopia: Movement for Democracy and Social Justice and a Deputy Chairman of Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), for which he served … Read MoreBerhanu Nega (1958- )
Former State Legislator and Mayor Willie Lewis Brown Jr. was born in Mineola, Texas, to Willie L. Brown, Sr., and Minnie (Boyd) Lewis on March 20, 1934. After migrating to San Francisco, California in 1951, Brown worked as a janitor in order to subsidize his … Read MoreWillie Brown, Jr. (1934- )
California’s 18th Century history is embedded with that of settlers from many racial and cultural groups. Terms such as mestizos, mulattos, españoles, lobos, and coyotes indicated a variety of Indian, Spanish, and Mexican, white and black families who migrated into the area in the 18th … Read MoreJuan Francisco Reyes Reyes (ca. 1749-ca. 1800)
Ron Oden is the first African American and the first openly gay man to hold the office of Mayor of Palm Springs, California. Born on March 21, 1950 in Detroit, Michigan, Oden attended Oakwood College (now University) in Huntsville, Alabama where he received a Bachelor … Read MoreRon Oden (1950- )
Although he has served as a public school teacher, attorney, and Michigan State Supreme Court Justice, Dennis Archer is best know as the Mayor of Detroit and the first African American to become president of the American Bar Association. Born on January 1, 1942 in … Read MoreDennis Archer (1942- )
Reverend Emanuel Cleaver II, born in Waxahachie, Texas in 1944, is best known as the first African American mayor of Kansas City, Missouri. Cleaver, who grew up in a public housing project in Wichita Falls, Texas, graduated from Prairie View A & M University in … Read MoreEmanuel Cleaver (1944- )
