Pierre G. Deslondes (last name sometimes spelled Deslonde) was an African American sugar planter and wealthy free man of color who served as Secretary of State of Louisiana during Reconstruction. He was the son of famed slave rebellion leader George Deslondes and Eloise Belly and … Read MorePierre George Deslondes (1829-1885)
Jesse Clark White is an American educator, politician, and former track and field athlete from the state of Illinois. He is a Democrat and has been the 37th Illinois Secretary of State since 1999. He is the longest serving Secretary of State in Illinois history … Read MoreJesse White (1936- )
Robyn A. Crittenden is an American attorney in the state of Georgia who was born in Long Island, New York. She was the 28th Secretary of State of Georgia. She is the first African American woman to head the Georgia Department of Revenue. Crittenden earned … Read MoreRobyn A. Crittenden (1964- )
Jesse James McCrary, Florida Secretary of State from 1978 to 1979, was born on September 16, 1937, in Blichton, Florida. During his high school years, McCrary attended Howard Academy, a school for African American children in Ocala where he was the quarterback on the school’s … Read MoreJesse James McCrary Jr. (1937-2007)
The Rev. Dr. Regena Lynn Thomas is a former politician who formerly held the office of secretary of state for New Jersey and is the director of the Human Rights and Community Relations Department of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Thomas was born and … Read MoreRegena Thomas (1957- )
Randy Allen Daniels is a politician, and journalist, who served as the 61st Secretary of State for New York. Daniels was born in 1950, in Chicago, Illinois. His mother was a seamstress from Mississippi, and his father was a dry cleaner from Arkansas. Daniels attended … Read MoreRandy Daniels (1950- )
DeForest Blake “Buster” Soaries Jr. is a minister, author, and former secretary of state for New Jersey. Soaries was born on August 20, 1951, in Brooklyn, New York. His parents were both West Indian immigrants and his father was a preacher. After graduating from high … Read MoreDeForest Soaries (1951- )
Francis Lewis Cardozo was a minister, educator, and politician who was born free in Charleston, South Carolina, on February 1, 1836. Cardozo was of mixed ancestry, as his father, Isaac Nunez Cardozo, was a Sephardic Jew, and his mother, Lydia Williams Weston, was a free … Read MoreFrancis Cardozo (1836-1903)
Lonna Romaine Hooks is an attorney and the first Black secretary of state for New Jersey. Hooks was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. Her father was head of the art department at Fisk University, and the Hooks family lived on campus. While attending her … Read MoreLonna Hooks (1959- )
Currently California Secretary of State, Shirley Nash Weber was born September 20, 1948, in Hope, Arkansas, one of the eight children of David Nash, a semi-literate sharecropper and later steel mill worker, and Mildred Nash, a homemaker. When her father disagreed with a white farmer … Read MoreShirley Nash Weber (1948- )
