list of African-American officeholders during Reconstruction
Federal Office[edit]
Senate[edit]
- Hiram Rhodes Revels (R), Senator from Mississippi (1870-1871)
- Blanche Bruce (R), Senator from Mississippi (1875-1881)
House[edit]
State Office[edit]
Alabama[edit]
- William Hooper Councill, clerk in the Alabama legislature in 1872 and 1874[1]
Arkansas[edit]
- Joseph Carter Corbin, chief clerk of the Little Rock Post Office (1872), state superintendent of public schools (1873-1875)
- William Henry Grey, Arkansas Constitutional Convention (1868), Arkansas House (1868-1869), Arkansas Senate (1875)
- James T. White, Arkansas House of Representatives, Arkansas Senate
Florida[edit]
- Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs, Secretary of State and Secretary of Public Instruction of Florida
- Thomas Van Renssalaer Gibbs, Florida House of Representatives, son of Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs
- Robert Meacham, Florida Senator
- Charles H. Pearce, Florida Senate
Georgia[edit]
- Eli Barnes, state legislator from Hancock County
- Tunis Campbell, State Senator from Georgia
- James Ward Porter, Chatham, GA state legislature
- Henry McNeal Turner, state legislator from Bibb County
- William Guilford, state legislator from Upson County
- William Henry Harrison, state legislator from Hancock County
- Aaron Alpeoria Bradley, state senator from Chatham County
- Thomas M. Allen, state representative from Jasper County
- Thomas Beard, state representative from Richmond County
- Edwin Belcher, state representative from Wilkes County
- George H. Clower, state representative from Monroe County
- Abram Colby, state representative from Greene County
- Romulus Moore, state representative from Columbia County
- John T. Costin, state representative from Talbot County
- Madison Davis, state representative from Clarke County
- Monday Floyd, state representative from Morgan County
- F. H. Fyall, state representative from Macon County
- Samuel Gardner, state representative from Warren County
- William A. Golden, state representative from Liberty County
- Ulysses L. Houston, state representative from Bryan County
- James M. Simms, state representative from Chatham County
- Philip Joiner, state representative from Dougherty County
- George Linder, state representative from Laurens County
- Robert Lumpkin, state representative from Macon County
- Peter O’Neal, state representative from Baldwin County
- Alfred Richardson, state representative from Clarke County
- Alexander Stone, state representative from Jefferson County
- Abraham Smith, state representative from Muscogee County
- John Warren, state representative from Burke County
- Samuel Williams, state representative from Harris County
Louisiana[edit]
- Theophile T. Allain, Louisiana House of Representatives, Louisiana Senate
- Oscar James Dunn, Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana 1868–71, First African American elected to a state-level position in the United States.
- Pierre Caliste Landry, Louisiana House of Representatives
- Milton Morris, Louisiana House of Representatives, represented Ascension Parish
- P.B.S. Pinchback, governor of Louisiana
Massachusetts[edit]
- George Lewis Ruffin, Massachusetts Legislature, 1870
Michigan[edit]
- Samuel C. Watson, State Board of Estimates, 1875
Mississippi[edit]
- Peter Barrow, State Senator from Mississippi
- Jesse Freeman Boulden, Mississippi House of Representatives
- Blanche Bruce, Bolivar County sheriff, tax collector, supervisor of education; sergeant-at-arms for the Mississippi state senate in 1870; state senator in 1874 (U.S. Senate in 1875-1881)
- George W. Gayles, Mississippi House of Representatives
- James D. Lynch, Secretary of State of Mississippi
- John R. Lynch, Mississippi House of Representatives, elected to U.S. House of Representatives
- James J. Spelman Mississippi House of Representatives, justice of the peace and alderman of the city of Canton, Mississippi
North Carolina[edit]
- Israel Abbott, member of the North Carolina House of Representatives (1872-1874)[2]
- John O. Crosby, 1875 delegate from Warren County, North Carolina to the North Carolina State Constitutional Convention[3]
- James Walker Hood, commissioner for the states public schools and assistant superintendent of public instruction in North Carolina (1868-1871)[4]
- John S. Leary, North Carolina State legislature (1868-1871), alderman in Fayetteville, North Carolina (1876-1877)
South Carolina[edit]
- Richard H. Cain, South Carolina Senate (1868-1870), later U.S. House and U.S. Senate
- Francis Lewis Cardozo, Secretary of State of South Carolina (1868-1872), South Carolina State Treasurer (1872-1877)
- Robert B. Elliott, State House lawmaker, and U.S. Representative from South Carolina
- Richard Theodore Greener, South Carolina school system commissioner, 1875.[5]
- Robert Smalls, South Carolina Representative, South Carolina Senator, U.S. Representative
- D. Augustus Straker, South Carolina House of Representatives, also Inspector of Customs at the port of Charleston and clerk in the auditors office of the treasury in Washington
- Alonzo J. Ransier, Lt. Governor of South Carolina (December 3, 1870-December 7, 1872) and later served as US Congressman (March 3, 1873-March 3, 1875)
- Jonathan J. Wright, lawyer, South Carolina State Senator (November 24, 1868-January 30, 1870) and First Black Associate Justice of South Carolina Supreme Court (January 11, 1870-December 1, 1877)
Tennessee[edit]
- Samuel A. McElwee, member of the Tennessee General Assembly (1883-1888)
Texas[edit]
Virginia[edit]
- William H. Ash
- Thomas Bayne
- Samuel P. Bolling
- Phillip S. Bolling
- Tazewell Branch
- Peter J. Carter
- Asa Coleman
- Johnson Collins
- Aaron Commodore
- John Wesley Cromwell, Clerk of the Virginia Constitutional Convention (1867), Washington D.C. government clerk
- Isaac Dabbs
- William Gilliam
- Joseph P. Evans
- Peter K. Jones
- Peter G. Morgan
- Armistead S. Nickens
- Richard G. L. Paige
Washington, D.C.[edit]
- Solomon G. Brown, House of Delegates for Washington D.C. (1871-1874), employee at the Smithsonian[6]
- John Mercer Langston, appointed member of the Board of Health of the District of Columbia
- John H. Smythe, 1872, clerk in the U.S. Census Bureau, clerk in the Treasury department, 1878 ambassador to Liberia
Local Office[edit]
Arkansas[edit]
- Mifflin Wistar Gibbs, Arkansas, judge, younger brother of Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs.
Colorado[edit]
- Henry O. Wagoner, clerk in the first Colorado State Legislature in 1876
Louisiana[edit]
- Thomas Morris Chester, superintendent of school district (1875)
- James Lewis (Louisiana politician), administrator of public improvements in New Orleans in 1872, appointed New Orleans naval officer in 1877
- Pierre Magloire, Avoyelles Parish Sheriff, Louisiana (1872)
- Alexander Noguez, Avoyelles Parish Sheriff, Louisiana (1868–72)
Maryland[edit]
- William H. Day Baltimore Inspector of Schools, in 1878 he was elected to the school board of directors at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Massachusetts[edit]
- James Monroe Trotter, mail agent
Nebraska[edit]
- Edwin R. Overall, appointed mail carrier in 1869
North Carolina[edit]
- John Hudson Riddick, city council of Norfolk and appointed United States deputy marshal, 1872
Ohio[edit]
- Jeremiah A. Brown, Cleveland, bailiff of the county probate court, deputy sheriff and county prison turnkey, then clerk of the City Boards of Equalization and Revision.[7]
- Robert James Harlan, mail agent
South Carolina[edit]
- Harrison N. Bouey, probate judge in Edgefield County
Virginia[edit]
- P. H. A. Braxton, constable in King William County in 1872, collector at the United States Custom House in Westmoreland County
Washington, D.C.[edit]
- William E. Matthews, clerk in the United States Postal Service in Washington D.C. in 1870, the first black person to receive an appointment in that department[8]
- Josiah T. Settle, reading clerk of the Washington, D.C. House of Delegates (1872), clerk in the Board of Public Works, as an accountant in the Board of Audits, and as a trustee of the county schools for the district