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

• 1826

:First African American to graduate from Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts: Edward Jones

:First African American to graduate from Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine: John Brown Russwurm

• 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.

• 1834

:First African American to study at Yale University (only allowed to audit classes at the Yale Divinity School): James W.C. Pennington

• 1836

:First African American to graduate from any flagship state university and earn a bachelor's degree (from Newark College in Delaware): Isaiah DeGrasse

:First African American to attend Western Reserve College: John Sykes Fayette

• 1838

:First African American to graduate from the University of Vermont (Class of 1838): Andrew Harris

• 1847

:First African American to graduate from Rush Medical College, Chicago, Illinois: David J. Peck

• 1854

:First African American admitted to the Ohio bar: John Mercer Langston

• 1857

:First African Americans to graduate from Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut: Richard Henry Greene and Cortlandt Creed

• 1859

:First African American on the staff at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Aaron Molyneaux Hewlett

• 1862

:First African American to teach at the Penn School (now the Penn Center (Saint Helena Island, South Carolina): Charlotte Forten Grimké

• 1865

:First African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio: Charles Burleigh Purvis

• 1868

:First elected African-American lieutenant governor: Oscar Dunn, Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana

: First 33 African-American legislators in Georgia: see Original 33

:First African American admitted to the University of Michigan Law School: Gabriel Franklin Hargo

: First African American to serve in the Alabama Senate: Benjamin F. Royal

: First African-American faculty member of the Howard University College of Medicine, Washington D.C.: Alexander Thomas Augusta

• 1869

:First African-American woman to earn a medical degree in New York State: Susan McKinney Steward

:First African-American teacher in the Little Rock, Arkansas (Pulaski County) school district: Charlotte Andrews Stephens

:First African American to earn a law degree from Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts: George Lewis Ruffin

• 1870

:First African-American senator from Mississippi: Hiram R. Revels (also first in U.S.)

:First African American to graduate from the University of Michigan Law School: Gabriel Franklin Hargo

:First African American from Alabama elected to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives: Benjamin S. Turner

:First African American on the faculty at Berea College, Berea, Kentucky: Julia Britton Hooks

:First African American to receive an undergraduate bachelor's degree from Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Richard Theodore Greener

:First African American professor at Harvard University: George Franklin Grant

:First African American student enrolled at Cornell College of Mount Vernon, Iowa: Charles Ruff

• 1871

: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)

:First two African Americans to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from Howard University College of Medicine in Washington D.C.: James L.N. Bowen and George W. Brooks

• 1872

:Second African-American acting governor of Louisiana: P. B. S. Pinchback (Also second in U.S.) (non-elected; see also Douglas Wilder, 1990) (Also first elected senator but was denied seat)

:First African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the University of Michigan Medical School: William Henry Fitzbutler

:First African-American Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives, and of any state legislature: John R. Lynch

• 1873

:First African American elected to the Tennessee General Assembly: Sampson W. Keeble

:First African-American professor of the University of South Carolina (USC): Richard Theodore Greener

• 1874

:First African American to graduate from Newton Theological Institution: George Washington Williams

• 1875

:First African American to attend and graduate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the early 1870s: Lottie Wilson Jackson

:First African American to graduate from the University of South Carolina (earned a bachelor's degree in art and the law): Thomas McCants Stewart

:First African American to graduate from the University of Wisconsin (earned a bachelor's degree): William Smith Noland

• 1876

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

:First African-American woman to be admitted to the University of Michigan: Mary Henrietta Graham

:First African American to enroll in the University of Kansas: Lizzie Ann Smith

:First African American to earn a Ph.D. from an American university as well as the sixth American of any race to earn a Ph.D. in physics (Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut): Edward Bouchet

• 1877

:First African American to graduate from Boston University School of Law: Emanuel Molyneaux Hewlett

:First African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee: James Monroe Jamison

:First African American to graduate from the University of Vermont: George Washington Henderson

:First African American to graduate from Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island: Inman E. Page

• 1878

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

:First African American appointed an officer of the Boston Police Department: Horatio J. Homer

• 1879

:First African American elected to the Wyoming Legislature: William Jefferson Hardin

:First African American elected to the Ohio General Assembly: George Washington Williams

:First African American to graduate from Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa: Hannibal Kershaw

:First African American to graduate from the University of Iowa College of Law: Alexander G. Clark Jr.

• 1880

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

:First African American to graduate from the University of Michigan: Mary Henrietta Graham

:First African American elected to the Ohio General Assembly: George Washington Williams

:First African American graduate of Maryville College, Maryville, Tennessee: William Henderson Franklin

• 1881

:First African American to head a hospital under civilian authority when appointed by President Chester Arthur as Surgeon-in-Charge at the Freedmen's Hospital, Washington D.C.: Charles Burleigh Purvis

:First African American to enroll at the University of California at Berkeley (no record of graduation): Alexander Jones

• 1882

:First African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine: Nathan Francis Mossell

:First African American to graduate from the University of Minnesota (B.A. degree): Andrew F. Hilyer

• 1883

:Founded the first school for black children in Augusta, Georgia and was principal for 50 years for the Haines Institute for Industrial and Normal Education: Lucy Craft Laney

:First African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan: Robert J. Boland

• 1884

:First African American woman to practice medicine in Ohio: Consuelo Clark-Stewart

:First African American to graduate from the New York State Normal School, which would become the University at Albany, SUNY (graduated with a teaching certificate): Evelena Williams

:First African American to graduate from the University of Nebraska College of Medicine in Omaha and the first African-American doctor in the state of Nebraska: Matthew Ricketts

:First African American to graduate from the law program of Columbia College of Law (later George Washington University), earning an LL.B. in 1884 and LL.M. in 1885: Samuel Laing Williams

• 1885

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

:First African-American woman to graduate from the University of Michigan Medical School and the first faculty member of Spelman College where she established its nurse training program: Sophia B. Jones

:First African American to earn a bachelor's degree from the University of Kansas: Blanch Ketene Bruce

• 1886

:First African American dentist to be licensed and practice in the state of Virginia: Charles B. Jackson

• 1887

:First documented African-American woman to graduate from an Indiana college or university when she received a bachelor's degree from Butler University: Gertrude Amelia Mahorney

:First African American to receive the Ph.D. degree from Boston University: John W. E. Bowen Sr.

• 1888

:First African-American woman to become a licensed doctor in the U.S. state of Massachusetts: Juan Bennett Drummond

:First African American to earn a law degree at the University of Pennsylvania Law School: Aaron Albert Mossell

:First African-American medical doctor of Durham, North Carolina: Aaron McDuffie Moore

:First African-American woman and first woman to practice medicine in the state of Mississippi: Verina Morton Jones

:Reportedly the first African American elected to the Kansas legislature: Alfred Fairfax

:First woman and first African-American woman to practice medicine in Mississippi: Verina Morton Jones

• 1889

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

:First African American to pass the California Board of Medical Examination: Monroe Alpheus Majors

:First African American admitted to practice law in Nebraska: Silas Robbins

:First African-American woman to graduate from Spencerian College of Commerce in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Addie Waites Hunton

:First African-American nun to serve in the state of Georgia: Mathilda Beasley

:First African-American woman to graduate from Oberlin Conservatory, Oberlin, Ohio, with a Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance: Harriet Gibbs Marshall

• 1890

:First African American chosen to deliver a Harvard University senior class oration (Cambridge, Massachusetts): Clement G. Morgan

:First African-American woman to graduate from the University of Michigan School of Dentistry and the first African-American woman to open a dental practice in Cincinnati, Ohio: Ida Gray

:First African American to graduate from Cincinnati Law School: William Parham

:First African-American woman to receive an advanced degree at Cornell University of Ithaca, New York (Bachelor of Science degree): Jane Eleanor Datcher

:First African-American woman to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania: Ida Elizabeth (Bowser) Asbury

• 1891

:First woman to be licensed as a physician in the U.S. state of Alabama: Halle Tanner Dillon Johnson

:First African American to play on the Nebraska Cornhuskers football team, among the first Black college football players nationwide: George Flippin

:First African-American woman physician to practice in Nassau County, New York: Verina Morton Jones

:First African-American woman physician in the state of Georgia: Alice Woodby McKane

• 1892

:First African American to receive a graduate degree at the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio: Charles Henry Turner

:First woman to work as a resident in the Howard University gynecology clinic Washington D.C.: Julia R. Hall

:First African American to graduate from Rutgers University New Jersey: James Dickson Carr

:First African American to graduate from Ohio State University: Sherman Hamlin Guss

• 1893

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

:First African-American woman to become a licensed surgeon and physician in Tennessee: Georgia E. L. Patton Washington

:First African American and the first woman to pass the Virginia Medical Examining Board's examination:Sarah Garland Boyd Jones

:First African American elected to the Nebraska House of Representatives when the body had two houses: Matthew Ricketts

:First African-American to graduate from the Western University of Pennsylvania: William Hunter Dammond

: First African-American woman to graduate from the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf: Blanche Wilkins Williams

• 1894

: First African-American woman to graduate from Chicago College of Law and the first African-American woman licensed to practice law in Illinois: Ida Platt

:First African American to graduate from Iowa State Agricultural College (now Iowa State University) in Ames: George Washington Carver

• 1895

:First African American to graduate and earn a degree (mathematics) from Indiana University: Marcellus Neal

:First African American to graduate from the University of Nebraska: George Flippin

• 1896

:First African-American woman appointed to the school board of a major city, serving Washington D.C. until 1906: Mary Church Terrell

:First African American to serve on the faculty of Iowa State Agricultural College (now Iowa State University) in Ames: George Washington Carver

• 1897

:First African-American woman licensed to practice medicine in the U.S. state of Georgia: Eliza Ann Grier

:First African-American woman licensed to practice medicine in South Carolina: Matilda Evans

:First African-American woman physician in Indianapolis: Beulah Wright Porter

:First African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine: Rivers Frederick

:First African-American woman to open a dental practice in Chicago, Illinois: Ida Gray

:First African American to graduate from Vassar College (by passing for white): Anita Florence Hemmings

• 1898

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

:First woman to teach law in a chartered law school when she joined the faculty of her alma mater, Central Tennessee College of Law: Lutie Lytle

:First African-American woman to graduate from medical school and to practice medicine in Louisiana: Emma Wakefield-Paillet

:First African-American woman to register as a licensed physician in Kentucky: Artishia Gilbert

:First African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from Yale School of Medicine New Haven, Connecticut: William F. Penn

:First African American on record to graduate from the University of Iowa: Samuel Joe Brown

• 1899

:First African American to graduate from the University of Idaho: Jennie Eva Hughes

20th century

• 1900

:First African American columnist to regularly write for a white newspaper in Indiana: Lillian Thomas Fox

:First African American to graduate from the University of Illinois: William Walter Smith

:First African American to graduate from Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (diploma in architectural drawing): William Sidney Pittman

:First African American to graduate from Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, receiving a B.A. degree in Classics: Otelia Cromwell

:First African American to graduate from the Denver School of Music: Emma Azalia Hackley

:First African American to graduate from Cornell College of Mount Vernon, Iowa: Frank Jeremiah Armstrong

• 1901

:First African American to earn his Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree from Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Algernon B. Jackson

:First African American to attend and earn a degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst (then Massachusetts Agricultural College): George Ruffin Bridgeforth

• 1902

:First African-American woman physician licensed in Colorado: Justina Ford

:First African-American woman physician licensed in Lexington, Kentucky: Mary E. Britton

:First African American to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania Department of Architecture: Julian Abele

• 1903

:First African-American lawyer in the state of Oregon: McCants Stewart

• 1904

:First African-American woman to graduate from Beloit College, Beloit, Wisconsin: Grace Ousley

• 1905

:First African-American to earn a doctorate degree in educational psychology (University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois): Charles Henry Thompson

:First African American to graduate from the University of California at Berkeley: Charles E. Carpenter

:First African-American woman to graduate from Ohio State University (bachelor's degree in modern languages): Jessie Frances Stephens

:First African American to graduate from Penn State University: Calvin H. Waller

:First African-American woman to graduate from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York: Jessie R. Fauset

:First African-American woman to graduate from Brown University (Bachelor of Philosophy degree): Ethel Ester Maria Tremaine Robinson

• 1906

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

:First African American to earn a Doctor in Medicine (MD) from Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Henry McKee Minton

:First African American president of Atlanta Baptist College, Georgia: John Hope

:First African-American woman to graduate from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (graduated with honors in three years with degrees in astronomy and mathematics): Maudelle Bousfield

• 1907

:First African American to earn a Doctor in Medicine (MD) degree from the University of Iowa College of Medicine: Edward Albert Carter

:First African American to earn a Doctor in Medicine (MD) degree from the University of Colorado School of Medicine: Samuel L. Raines

: First African American to earn a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago (zoology): Charles Henry Turner

:First African-American woman to graduate from Michigan Agricultural College (later Michigan State University): Myrtle Craig Mowbray

• 1908

:First African American to receive his license by passing the Kentucky state medical licensing board exam: William H. Perry Sr.

• 1909

:First African-American woman to graduate from the University of California at Berkeley: Vivian Rogers

:First African American to graduate from Harvard Divinity School: Edmund Harrison Oxley

• 1910

:First African-American woman to pass the Georgia State Board Dental Examination: Ida Mae Johnson Hiram

• 1911

:First African American to graduate from Valparaiso College Medical Department, Valparaiso, Indiana: Carl Glennis Roberts

:First African American to graduate with a bachelor's degree from the University at Albany, SUNY: Georgine Lewis

• 1912

:First African American to graduate from the engineering program of the University of Iowa (civil engineering): Archie Alexander

:First African-American woman to graduate from Temple University medical school (earning a doctor of medicine (M.D.) degree): Agnes Berry Montier

• 1914

:Founded the first hospital in the city of Evanston, Illinois that would serve African-American patients: Isabella Garnett and her husband Dr. Arthur Butler

:First African-American woman to graduate from the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy, Pennsylvania: Ella P. Stewart

:First African American to graduate from the University of Rhode Island: Harvey Robert Turner

• 1915

:First African American and first woman to graduate from the University of Hawaiʻi (master’s degree in chemistry): Alice Ball

:Possibly the first African American to graduate from Suffolk Law School, Boston, Massachusetts: Thomas Vreeland Jones (Father of Lois Mailou Jones)

:First African American to graduate from Macalester College, Saint Paul, Minnesota, before going to medical school and pursuing a career in medical science: Catharine Deaver Lealtad

:First African American to earn a degree from Cornell University Medical College, New York City: Roscoe Conkling Giles

:First African-American graduate of the Indiana Public Library Commission Summer School for Librarians (later the Indiana University School of Library and Information Science) and the earliest known formally trained African American librarian in Indiana: Lillian Haydon Childress Hall

• 1916

:First African-American woman to practice dentistry in Cambridge, Massachusetts: Edna C. Robinson Brown

:First African-American woman to graduate from the School of Pharmacy at University of Pittsburgh, and the first African-American woman licensed to practice pharmacology in the state of Pennsylvania: Ella P. Stewart

:First African Americans to graduate from Ohio State University College of Medicine: Clarence Alphonso Lindsay, Rudolph Finley and Charles Robert Lewis

• 1917

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

:First African American to give a recital in Symphony Hall (Boston): Roland Hayes

• 1918

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

:First African-American student at Hamline University in Minnesota: Anna Arnold Hedgeman

:First African-American woman to run for legislative office in the state of Washington: Alice S. Presto

:First African American to graduate from the University of Colorado was most likely: Lucille Buchanan Jones

:First African American to graduate from the Connecticut Agricultural College (now the University of Connecticut): Alan Thacker Busby

:First African-American woman lawyer in Iowa: Gertrude Rush

:First African American to graduate from Millikin University: Fred T. Long

• 1919

:First African-American woman to be appointed a police officer at the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD): Georgia Ann Robinson

• 1920

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

:First African-American librarian hired by the New York Public Library (NYPL): Catherine Allen Latimer

:First African-American woman to graduate from the Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, and the only woman in her graduating class: Jessie G. Garnett

:First African-American registered nurse in the state of Georgia: Ludie Clay Andrews

• 1921

:First African-American faculty member of Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts (chemistry): Robert Percy Barnes

• 1922

:First African American to graduate from Hamline University in Minnesota: Anna Arnold Hedgeman

:First African-American woman to work for the Louisville Metro Police Department: Bertha Whedbee

:First African American to graduate from the University of Montana: James W. Dorsey

:First African-American woman admitted to and graduate from the Library School of the New York Public Library (the school merged in 1926 with the New York State Library School to become Columbia University School of Library Service): Nella Larsen

• 1924

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

:First African American to graduate from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine: James Lowell Hall, Sr.

:First African-American woman to graduate from Fordham University School of Law (New York City), where she graduated cum laude: Ruth Whitehead Whaley

:First woman from Georgia and the first African-American woman in the nation to serve on the National Republican Committee; later in the same year, first woman in U.S. history accorded the floor of the National Republican Convention: Mamie George S. Williams

:First African-American woman to graduate from the New England Conservatory of Music: Gladys A. Moore Perdue

:First African-American woman to graduate from the University of Iowa's College of Law: Beulah Wheeler

• 1925

:First African American woman admitted to Barnard college in New York City: Zora Neale Hurston

• 1926

:First African-American woman to graduate from Bellevue Hospital Medical College, now NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York: May Edward Chinn

:First African American to graduate with a Master of Arts (MA) degree from the University of Oregon: William Sherman Savage

:First African American to graduate from the University of New Hampshire: Elizabeth Virgil

:First African American president of Howard University, Washington D.C.: Mordecai Wyatt Johnson

:First African American to graduate from an Oregon public university (Oregon State University), Corvallis, Oregon: Carrie Halsell Ward (Bachelor of Science degree in Business)

:First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. from Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut: Otelia Cromwell

• 1927

:First African-American woman to receive a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School: Sadie T. M. Alexander

:First African-American graduate of Western Michigan Teachers College: Merze Tate

:First African American to earn a degree from the University of Maine at Orono: Ada Viola Peters Smith

• 1928

:First African-American woman legislator in the United States when she was appointed to the West Virginia House of Delegates: Minnie Buckingham Harper

:First African-American woman to graduate from Barnard College, New York City: Zora Neale Hurston

• 1929

:First African American dean of the Howard University College of Medicine (Washington D.C.): Numa P. G. Adams

:First African American president of Atlanta University: John Hope

• 1930

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

:First African-American woman to graduate from the University of Cincinnati Law School: Helen Elsie Austin

:First woman president of Tillotson College (now Huston–Tillotson University), a HBCU in Austin, Texas and the first woman to head an accredited college in Texas: Mary Elizabeth Branch

:First African American to graduate from the University of Nevada (Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering): Theodore Harry Miller

:First African American to graduate from Crozer Theological Seminary, Upland, Pennsylvania: Elmer P. Gibson

:First African-American police lieutenant in St. Louis, Missouri: Ira L. Cooper

• 1931

:First African-American woman licensed as a pharmacist in the state of Iowa: Gwendolyn Wilson Fowler

:First African-American physician admitted to membership in the Philadelphia Neurological Society: R. Wellesley Bailey

:First African-American woman to graduate from Yale Law School: Jane Bolin

• 1932

:First African-American woman to receive a law degree from Fordham University in New York City: Eunice Carter

:First African American to earn degree from California Institute of Technology (Bachelor of Science in civil engineering: Grant Delbert Venerable

:First African American to earn a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota (biochemistry): Vernon Alexander Wilkerson

:First African-American library manager in the Chicago Public Library system: Vivian G. Harsh

:First African American to graduate from Syracuse University Law School: Conrad Lynn

:First African-American woman to earn a Master of Library and Information Science (MLS) degree in Columbia University, New York: Dorothy B. Porter

:First African-American woman to graduate from Penn State University (graduated with honors from the home economics department): Mildred Settle

• 1933

:First African American soloist to perform with the all-white Chicago Symphony Orchestra: Margaret Bonds

:First African American to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry at Harvard University: Robert Percy Barnes

:First African-American woman physician to practice in the state of Maryland: N. Louise Young

:First African-American woman admitted to the North Carolina bar, but she never practiced in the state: Ruth Whitehead Whaley

:First African-American woman to receive a master’s degree in home economics at Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, now known as Iowa State University: Willie Lee Glass

• 1934

:First African American to earn a Ph.D. in history from Ohio State University: W. Sherman Savage

:First African American admitted to the Cleveland School of Art, Ohio: Charles L. Sallée Jr

• 1935

:First African-American woman to work as a prosecutor in the New York County (Manhattan) District Attorney’s Office: Eunice Carter

:First African-American woman to earn a degree at the University of Oxford (bachelor of literature degree (B.Litt.) in international relations): Merze Tate

:First African American to earn a Ph.D. in agronomy from Massachusetts State College: Major Franklin Spaulding

:First African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine: Lucy Oxley

:First African American on record to graduate from the University of Arizona (a Bachelor of Arts degree in history): Elgie Mike Batteau

• 1936

: First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. at Cornell University (Home Economics): Flemmie Pansy Kittrell

:First African American woman appointed as a New York City public school principal: Gertrude Elise Ayer

• 1937

:First African American and first woman appointed as an assistant attorney general in Ohio: Helen Elsie Austin

:First African-American woman to graduate from Grinnell College, in Grinnell, Iowa: Edith Renfrow Smith

:First African American hired as a policeman by the Baltimore Police Department: Violet Hill Whyte

:First African American to join the faculty of the University of Illinois College of Medicine: Roosevelt Brooks

:First African-American artist to be given a one-person show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City: William Edmondson

: First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania: Anna Johnson Julian

• 1938

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

: First African-American woman from the state of Florida to graduate from an accredited law school (Howard University Law School): Blanche Armwood

: First African American to graduate from the University of New Mexico: Oliver LaGrone

• 1939

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

: First African American to serve on the Los Angeles Board of Education: Fay Allen

: First African American to earn a Ph.D. in a physical science (physics) from the University of Cincinnati: Herman Branson

: First African Americans to graduate from the University of North Dakota: Fritz Pollard Jr. and Horace Johnson

• 1940

: First African-American graduate of the University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota: Paul P. Boswell

: First African American to earn a Ph.D. degree from Columbia University (psychology): Kenneth Clark

: First African American to earn a Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) degree from the University of Iowa: Elizabeth Catlett

• 1941

: First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in government and international relations from Harvard University (then Radcliffe College): Merze Tate

: First African American to earn a Ph.D. in engineering (Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from Iowa State University): Walter T. Daniels

: First woman to earn a Ph.D. in science from Fordham University (botany): Marie Taylor

: First African-American dean of Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tennessee: Michael J. Bent

: First African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Kansas School of Medicine: Edward Vernon Williams

: First African American hired by the San Francisco transit: Audley Cole

: First African American (and at age 26 the youngest person) to conduct the New York Philharmonic Orchestra: Dean Dixon

: First African American to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign: David Blackwell

: First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in anatomy from Western Reserve University: Ruth Smith Lloyd

: First African American to earn a Ph.D. degree at the University of Iowa and in the state of Iowa (among the first African-American women to earn a Ph.D. in history in the United States): Lulu Johnson

: First African-American woman known to receive a graduate degree in physics (master's degree at the University of Michigan): Carolyn Parker

: First African American to earn a Ph.D. degree from Ohio State University in chemistry: Thomas Nelson Baker Jr.

• 1942

: First African-American woman to publish a novel in South Carolina: Annie Greene Nelson

: First African-American woman to graduate from Lincoln University School of Law and to be admitted to practice law in Missouri: Dorothy L. Freeman

• 1943

: Baltimore Police Department African-American officers were allowed to wear police uniforms.

: First African American to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley: Lloyd Noel Ferguson

: First African-American engineer licensed in the state of Louisiana: Walter T. Daniels

:First African-American woman to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan: Helen Marjorie Peebles-Meyers

: First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. degree from Columbia University (psychology): Mamie Clark

: First African-American woman streetcar operator in San Francisco: Maya Angelou

: First African-American librarian in the city of Denver, Colorado: Pauline Short Robinson

• 1944

: First African-American woman to graduate from the University of Michigan Law School and pass the bar exam: Jane Cleo Marshall Lucas

: First African-American librarian to work at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh: Vivian Davidson Hewitt

• 1945

: First African-American woman to graduate from Columbia Law School in New York City: Elreta Alexander-Ralston

: First African American to be elected to Congress from New York, as well as the first from any state in the Northeast: Adam Clayton Powell Jr.

: First African American to perform in The Town Hall (New York City): George Walker

: First African-American woman to graduate from Yale Divinity School: Rena Karefa-Smart

• 1946

: First African American to graduate from a nursing program in Colorado (University of Colorado School of Nursing): Zipporah Parks Hammond

: First African-American woman to pass the Maryland bar exam and be admitted to practice law in Maryland: Jane Cleo Marshall Lucas

: First African-American physician to work at the Newark City Hospital, Newark, New Jersey: Ernest Mae McCarroll

: First African-American president of Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee: Charles S. Johnson

: First African American to earn an accounting degree from Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska: William Alfred Woods

: First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. degree in history from Ohio State University: Helen G. Edmonds

: First African-American woman to graduate from the University of Chicago Law School: Jewel Lafontant

: Likely the first African-American woman to earn a pilot’s license in the state of Texas: Azellia White

• 1947

: First African-American woman to graduate in medicine from Ohio State University: Clotilde Dent Bowen

: First African-American woman licensed to practice law in North Carolina: Elreta Alexander-Ralston

: First African American to earn a Ph.D. in pharmacy from Ohio State University: Roy Clifford Darlington

: First African American woman to graduate from DePaul College of Law: Odas Nicholson

• 1948

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

:First African-American female attorney admitted to the Alabama State Bar: Mahala Ashley Dickerson

:First African Americans hired by the Atlanta Police Department: Henry Hooks, Claude Dixon, Ernest H. Lyons, Robert McKibbens, Willard Strickland, Willie T. Elkins, Johnnie P. Jones, and John Sanders

:First African Americans admitted to the Georgetown University Law Center: Winston A. Douglas, Elmer W. Henderson, William D. Martin and Lutrelle F. Parker

:First African American admitted to the University of Arkansas School of Law since Reconstruction and the first black student to be admitted for graduate or professional studies at any all-white university in the former Confederacy: Silas Herbert Hunt

: First African American to complete a residency at the New York Psychiatric Institute and the first African-American trainee to be certified in psychoanalysis at Columbia University's Columbia Psychoanalytic Center (New York): Margaret Morgan Lawrence

: First African-American physician appointed to the West Virginia State Board of Health: Peyton Randolph Higginbotham

: First African-American woman to graduate from Creighton University Law School: Elizabeth Pittman

: First African American male student to graduate from Oregon State University (OSU), (Corvallis, Oregon): William Tebeau

: First African-American woman to be accepted at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the first African-American woman to be accepted in any medical school in the Southern United States: Edith Irby Jones

: First African American to graduate from the University of California, Berkeley (Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering): Howard P. Grant

• 1949

: First African American admitted to the University of Oklahoma College of Law: Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher

: First African American to be appointed president of the Commission of the Detroit Department of Public Welfare: Rosa Slade Gragg

: First African American appointed building inspector for the city of Detroit, Michigan: Everod A. Coleman

: First African American certified by the Missouri State Medical Society: William D. Mormon

: First African-American physician appointed to the medical staff of Boston City Hospital (Massachusetts): Charles D. Bonner

: First African-American woman to join the medical staff at Washington University School of Medicine, and the first African-American woman to join the staff of St. Louis Children's Hospital, both located in St. Louis, Missouri: Helen Elizabeth Nash

: First African American appointed professor at Harvard University (clinical professor of bacteriology and immunology): William Augustus Hinton

: First African-American nurse elected to the board of directors of the Florida State Nurses Association (FSNA): Mary Elizabeth Carnegie

: First African-American physician to work in a Denver, Colorado hospital: Edmond Noel (spouse of Rachel Noel)

• 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

: First African-American woman to graduate from the University of Maryland School of Law and to practice law in the state of Maryland: Juanita Jackson Mitchell

: First African American urologist to practice in the state of Virginia: Silas Odell Binns

: First African American to serve on the board of Omaha Public Schools, Omaha, Nebraska: Elizabeth Pittman

: First African American woman to graduate from Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri with honors (magna cum laude) earning a Bachelor of Science degree: Anita Lyons Bond

:First African Americans elected to the Arizona Legislature (Arizona House of Representatives): Carl Sims and Hayzel Burton Daniels

• 1951

:Second African-American woman admitted to the Indiana bar: Mahala Ashley Dickerson

:First African American undergraduate admitted to the University of Maryland at College Park: Hiram Whittle

:First African American to earn a Ph.D. in physiology from the University of Illinois: Edward William Hawthorne

:First African-American woman to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) from Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts: Mildred Fay Jefferson

:First African-American woman to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from Loma Linda University School of Medicine: Hughenna L. Gauntlett

:First African-American woman to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York: Marie Metoyer

:First African-American woman physician to practice medicine in Midland, Texas: Viola Mary Johnson Coleman

:First African-American prima ballerina hired by the Metropolitan Opera: Janet Collins

:First African-American woman to graduate from University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School: Vel Phillips

:First African American undergraduate to graduate from the University of Kentucky (UK) and from the University of Kentucky College of Engineering with an electrical engineering degree: Holloway Fields Jr.

:First African-American to earn a graduate degree from the University of Delaware (Master’s Degree in Education): Kathryn Young Hazeur

• 1952

:First African American to graduate from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the first African-American intern at an Arkansas hospital: Edith Irby Jones

:First African-American woman elected (rather than appointed) to the Michigan state senate: Cora Brown

:First tenured African-American professor in the entire University of California educational system and the first tenured African-American faculty member in a STEM field at a top-ranked, predominantly white university in the country: Joseph Thomas Gier

:First African American appointed as a full-time member of the University of Michigan faculty: Albert Wheeler

:First African-American resident of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's Episcopal Hospital: Calvin C. Sampson

:First African American to earn a degree at any level from Louisiana State University (LSU) (master's degree in education): Charles Edward Harrington

:First African American to perform at Constitution Hall in Washington D.C.: Dorothy Maynor

: First African American to graduate from the University of Maryland (master's degree in sociology): Parren Mitchell

: First African-American woman to graduate from Case Western Reserve University Law School: Sara J. Harper

• 1953

: First African-American woman physician on the faculty of the University of Louisville School of Medicine: Grace Marilynn James

: First African-Americans to earn degrees at the University of Virginia : Louise Stokes Hunter and Walter N. Ridley

: First African American man to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine: Emmett Campbell

: First African American appointed to a staff of a Louisville, Kentucky hospital: Grace Marilynn James

: First African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) from the University of Texas Medical School at Galveston: Herman A. Barnett

: First African-American woman licensed attorney in the state of Texas: Charlye O. Farris

• 1954

: First African-American woman to hold a cabinet position in New York City: Anna Arnold Hedgeman

:First African-American woman to become a licensed architect in the state of New York: Norma Merrick Sklarek

: First African American to receive a law degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge: Ernest Nathan Morial

: First African American elected president of the Queens (New York) Medical Society: John Edward Lowery

: First African American to earn a degree from the University of Tennessee (graduated with a master's degree in special education: Lillian Jenkins

: First African American to graduate from Vanderbilt University Divinity School (also the first African American to earn a doctorate from Vanderbilt, graduating in 1958): Joseph A. Johnson Jr.

: First African-American woman to graduate from the University of Texas School of Law in Austin, Texas: Gloria Bradford

• 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

: First African-American artist to have a solo exhibition at the Delgado Museum (now the New Orleans Museum of Art): Clementine Hunter

: First African-American woman to argue a case before the North Carolina Supreme Court: Elreta Alexander-Ralston

: First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics education (University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania): Angie Turner King

: First African Americans to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the University of Maryland School of Medicine: Roderick Edwards Charles and Donald Wallace Stewart

: First African-American woman to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) from the Medical College of Virginia: Jean L. Harris

: First three African-American undergraduates to enroll in the University of Arkansas (and all three completed a nursing degree program): Maxine Sutton, Billy Rose Whitfield, and Marjorie Wilkins

: First African American to sing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City: Robert McFerrin

: First African-American librarian at the University of Kentucky: Eleanor Young Love

: First African American to play a major role in the San Francisco Opera: Mattiwilda Dobbs

:First African American to graduate from George Peabody College for Teachers (later Peabody College of Vanderbilt University), earning her Master of Library Science: Tommie Morton-Young

:First African-American woman admitted to the Harris County Medical Society, which includes Houston, Texas: Thelma Patten Law

:First African American woman elected to the New York State Supreme Court: Mary Johnson Lowe

• 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.

:First African-American woman to obtain a Master of Laws degree from Georgetown University Law Center: Mabel Dole Haden

:First African-American woman on the engineering faculty at Tennessee A & I University: Yvonne Clark

:First African-American physician to set up a practice in orthopedic surgery in California: Julius Wanser Hill

:First African American to earn a Ph.D. from the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York: George Walker

: First African American to graduate from Spring Hill College of Mobile, Alabama: Fannie E. Motley

: First African American law firm established in Mobile, Alabama: Vernon Z. Crawford

: First woman and the first African-American member of the Common Council in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and given the title "Madam Alderman" by local officials: Vel Phillips

: First African-American woman to enroll in and graduate from St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas, first African-American woman to practice law in Bexar County, Texas, and the only one for twenty-seven years, from 1956 to 1983: Hattie Elam Briscoe

: First African American full-time faculty member at Penn State University (art education): Mary Godfrey

• 1957

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

: First African Americans to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine: Edward B. Nash and Edward T. Wood

: First African-American orthopedic surgeon to practice in the state of Maryland: Elroy Young

: First African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Washington School of Medicine: Lloyd C. Elam

: First African Americans to graduate from the University of Missouri: Walter Wesley Hamilton and Hubert Arthur Kelley

: First African-American judge in Colorado (municipal court judge): James C. Flanigan

• 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 woman to earn a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering at the University of Michigan: Willie Hobbs Moore

:First African-American woman to achieve a master's degree from the University of Minnesota in organic chemistry: Jeannette Brown

:First African-American full professor at University of California, Berkeley: David Blackwell

:First African-American surgeon in the state of Oklahoma to be certified by the American Board of Surgery: Charles A. Tollett

:First African-American woman to earn a Doctor of Medicine degree from Saint Louis University School of Medicine: Maceola L. Cole

:First African-American board-certified surgeon in Georgia: Asa G. Yancey Sr.

: First African-American woman to graduate from the University of Missouri: Nora A. Petty

: First African American to graduate from the University of Texas at Austin (earned a bachelor's degree in secondary education): Edna Oddessa Humphries Rhambo

:First African American admitted to the University of Florida: George H. Starke Jr.

:First African American woman to vote in Miami, Florida: Blanche Calloway

:First African-American graduate of Virginia Tech: Charlie L. Yates

• 1959

:First African-American woman to graduate from the University of Maryland: Elaine J. Coates

:First African-American attorney in the state of Alaska: Mahala Ashley Dickerson

:First African-American woman to serve as a judge in Pennsylvania: Juanita Kidd Stout

:First African-American woman attorney to practice law in the state of Kentucky: Alberta Odell Jones

:First African American to graduate from the University of Virginia, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering: Robert Arthur Bland

:First tenured African-American professor at the University of Iowa: Philip G. Hubbard

:First woman to be awarded an engineering degree by Prairie View A&M University and the first African-American woman to earn an engineering degree from any university in the state of Texas: Nathelyne A. Kennedy

:First African-American woman to become a fellow of the American College of Surgeons: Dorothy Lavinia Brown

:First African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine from George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences: James Edwin Jackson

:First African-American woman to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) from the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine: Vivian Moon Lewis

:First African American to earn a bachelor's degree from the University of West Virginia: Jack Hodges

:First African American playwright to win the New York Drama Critics' Circle award: Lorraine Hansberry

• 1960

:First African-American woman to earn a doctorate in any subject at the University of Texas at Austin (mathematics education): Lillian K. Bradley

:First African American to serve in the Alaska Legislature: Blanche L. McSmith

• 1961

:First African-American students to attend the University of Georgia: Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton E. Holmes

:First African-American woman to graduate from the University of Pittsburgh's School of Engineering: Elayne Arrington

:First African-American woman to earn a Master of Science in electrical engineering at the University of Michigan: Willie Hobbs Moore

:First African American licensed to practice veterinary medicine in the state of Alabama: Raleigh H. Allen

:First African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine from Stanford University School of Medicine: Augustus A. White

:First African American to earn a bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: David M. Dansby Jr.

:First African American confirmed as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California and the first African American United States Attorney in the nation's history: Cecil F. Poole

:First African Americans to enroll at Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech): Ford C. Greene, Ralph A. Long Jr., and Lawrence Williams

• 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.

:First African-American woman to become a licensed architect in the state of California: Norma Merrick Sklarek

:First woman and first African American to hold the position of West Virginia's mental health commissioner: Mildred Mitchell-Bateman

:First African-American woman in Virginia to become a Certified Public Accountant (CPA): Ruth Coles Harris

:First African American to teach in the department of psychology at the University of Kansas, serving as an assistant professor: C. Kermit Phelps

:First African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri: James Leonard Sweatt, III

:First African American and first woman in the United States hired to head a state department of mental health when she was appointed full-time director of the West Virginia Department of Mental Health: Mildred Mitchell-Bateman

:First African American to graduate from the University of Florida (graduated from the University of Florida Levin College of Law): W. George Allen

:First African American to enroll in the University of Mississippi (graduated in 1963): James Meredith

:First African-American woman to serve in the Missouri state legislature: DeVerne Lee Calloway

:First African-American woman to be elected to the Maryland Senate: Verda F. Welcome

:First African-American student admitted to Georgia State College: Annette Lucille Hall

• 1963

:First African American student at Clemson University: Harvey Gantt

:First African Americans to graduate from the University of Georgia: Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter-Gault

:First African American elected to the Los Angeles City Council: Tom Bradley

:First African-American reporter for the Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio: Robert G. McGruder

:First African-American woman to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as an undergraduate student: Karen L. Parker

:First African American to attend the University of Mississippi School of Law: Cleve McDowell

• 1964

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

: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

:First African-American woman to earn a contract with an American national symphony – with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra as principal keyboardist: Patricia Prattis Jennings

:First African-American full time faculty members at southern, traditionally white colleges: Wesley Lee Jordan (mathematics department at Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, North Carolina) and Ervin Perry (civil engineering department at University of Texas at Austin)

:First African American to graduate from Florida State University's graduate program with a master's degree (social work from the School of Social Work): Maxine Thurston

:First African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine: Alvin H. Crawford

:First African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) from the University of Kentucky: Carl Weber Watson

:First African American to serve on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors: Terry Francois

:First African American and first woman to serve in the Iowa House of Representatives: Willie Stevenson Glanton

:First African Americans admitted to practice law in Nevada: Robert L. Reid and Earle W. White

:First African-American student of Auburn University: Harold Franklin

• 1965

:First African-American woman elected to public office in Colorado (Denver Public Schools Board of Education: Rachel B. Noel

:First African American to graduate from the University of Alabama: Vivian Malone Jones

:First African American to graduate from Clemson University, and third ranking student in the architecture program: Harvey Gantt

:First African-American mathematics instructor at the Milwaukee Area Technical College: Gloria Ford Gilmer

:First African American to graduate from Florida State University with a bachelor's degree (mathematics): Maxwell Courtney

:First African American to earn a degree from Tarkio College (Missouri): Walter C. Gough

:First African American to graduate from the University of Florida with an undergraduate degree: Stephan Mickle

:First African American criminal court judge in a court of record in the state of Tennessee (Shelby County criminal court): Benjamin Hooks

:First African American to graduate from the Arlington State College (ASC): Maxwell Scarlett

:First African-American woman elected to the Georgia General Assembly: Grace Towns Hamilton

:First African-American woman to be a full-time faculty member of the University of Delaware: Hilda Andrea Davis

:First African-American woman to earn an undergraduate degree from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism): Karen L. Parker

: First African-American to serve on the Miami City Commission (Miami, Florida): M. Athalie Range

:First African-American woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar: Marian Wright Edelman

:First African American to earn a degree from Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech): Ronald Yancey (earned an electrical engineering degree)

:First African American to serve on the Atlanta Board of Aldermen since Reconstruction, elected in 1965 and taking office in 1966: Q. V. Williamson

:First African-American librarian to be accepted as a member of the Georgia Library Association: E. J. Josey

• 1966

:First African-American woman elected to the Texas Senate: Barbara Jordan

:First African American known lesbian state legislator: Barbara Jordan

: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

: Baltimore Police Department (BPD) first allowed African-American officers to use squad cars. Previously, they were restricted to foot patrols

: First African-American woman to earn a contract with an American national symphony – with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra as principal keyboardist, playing piano, harpsichord, organ and celesta: Patricia Prattis Jennings

: First African-American woman on the Baylor University (Texas) faculty: Vivienne Malone-Mayes

:First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin: Vivienne Malone-Mayes

:First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia (mathematics): Shirley McBay

:First African-American woman to teach mathematics at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee: Gloria Ford Gilmer

:First African-American woman elected as an officer in a state labor organization when she was elected executive vice-president of the New Jersey Industrial Union Council: Mae Massie Eberhardt

:First African American judge in Nevada: Robert L. Reid

:First African-American deputy district attorney in Nevada: Addeliar D. Guy, III

: First African-American member of the Birmingham Bar Association (Alabama): Oscar W. Adams

: First African American (and first African-American woman) to graduate from Auburn University: Josetta Matthews

• 1967

: First African-American woman elected to the Baltimore City Council: Victorine Q. Adams

: First African American elected to the Louisiana State Legislature since Reconstruction: Ernest Nathan Morial

: First African-American woman graduate of the Loyola University New Orleans College of Law: Joan Bernard Armstrong

: First African-American woman to complete a bachelor's degree at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee: Dorothy J. Phillips

:First African-American woman to be head of a Catholic hospital (St. Clare's Hospital in Baraboo, Wisconsin): Mary Antona Ebo

:First African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) from Emory University School of Medicine (Georgia): Hamilton E. Holmes

:First African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) from the Duke University School of Medicine (North Carolina): Delano Meriwether

:First African-American woman to serve as associate dean of a major medical school (New York Medical College): Jane C. Wright

:First African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Maryland): Robert Lee Gamble

:First African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) from the University of Wisconsin: Walter James Tardy, Jr.

:First African-American president of the Washington Orthopaedic Society: Charles H. Epps Jr.

:First African American elected to the Kentucky Senate: Georgia Davis Powers

: Believed to be the first African-American deputy public defender in Nevada: Earle W. White

:First African American to earn a Ph.D. degree in Physical Biochemistry from Purdue University: William Moore

:First African-American woman to serve on Wilmington, Delaware City Council: Hattie Phelan

: First two African-American Ph.D. graduates at Duke University: Ida Stephens Owens and James Roland Law

• 1968

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

:First African-American woman elected as a district court judge in North Carolina: Elreta Alexander-Ralston

:First African-American woman to earn a Doctor of Medicine from George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences: Joan R. Sealy

:First African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the University of California, Irvine, College of Medicine: John Richard Crear, Jr.

:First two African-American women to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (Ohio): Loma K. Flowers and Doris A. Evans

:First African American to be the Poet Laureate of Illinois: Gwendolyn Brooks

:First African American to serve as music director and conductor of the New Jersey Symphony (a major American orchestra): Henry Lewis

:First African American television news reporter in Oregon (as well as in the Pacific Northwest: Dick Bogle

:First African-American woman to serve in a state police force in the United States (Connecticut): Louise Smith

:First African-American woman elected to a public office in Mississippi since the Reconstruction era (elected Election Commissioner in Canton, Mississippi): Flonzie Brown Wright

:First African American in the 20th century to graduate from the University of South Carolina School of Law: I. S. Leevy Johnson

:First African American to serve on the Birmingham, Alabama City Council: Arthur Shores

:First African-American woman to earn a Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in dance from Texas Women's University: Ann Williams

• 1969

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

:First African American state senator in Virginia since Reconstruction: Douglas Wilder

:First African-American woman to become a full-time faculty member at the University of Kentucky when she joined the Department of Sociology: Doris Y. Wilkinson

:First African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the University of Miami School of Medicine (Florida): George Sanders

:First African-American associate dean for students at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut: James P. Comer

:First African-American associate dean for students at Howard University College of Medicine, Washington D.C.: Alvin Francis Poussaint

:First African-American woman to head a department of psychiatry at an American medical school when she joined the faculty and headed the psychiatry department at Meharry Medical College (Tennessee): Jeanne Spurlock

:First African-American physician tenured at the University of Nebraska Medical School: Melvin Earl Jenkins

: First African-American woman professor at the Tulane University School of Medicine (Louisiana): Anna Epps

: First African-American congressman elected in the state of Ohio: Louis Stokes

: First African-American administrator for the University of Texas at Arlington: Reby Cary

: First African American woman professor hired by the University of Arkansas: Margaret Louise Sirman Clark

: First woman and first African-American television news anchor in Colorado, co-anchoring a newscast at KOA-TV (later renamed KCNC-TV) in Denver: Reynelda Muse

: First African-American woman to earn a Master of Business Administration (MBA) at Harvard Business School: Lillian Lincoln

• 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

: First African American elected as Juvenile Court judge in Louisiana: Ernest Nathan Morial

: First African American to graduate with a medical degree from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee: Levi Watkins

: First African American to become superintendent of a large school district when appointed to the Oakland Unified School District in Oakland, California: Marcus Foster

: First African American appointed State Commissioner for Health for the state of New Jersey: James Rankin Cowan

:First African American to earn both a Doctor of Medicine (MD) and a doctorate (Ph.D.) from Case Western Reserve University (Ohio): David Satcher

:The first two African Americans to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the University of Florida College of Medicine: Ruben Earl Brigety and Henry Earl Coteman

:First African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans: Claude Jenkins Tellis

: First two African Americans to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the University of Alabama School of Medicine: Richard Charles Dale and Samuel William Sullivan Jr.

: First African American appointed to any San Francisco City commission: H. Welton Flynn

:First African American becomes a cheerleader at the University of Texas at Arlington: Dickie Fears

:First African American elected to any office in Oregon (Portland School Board): Gladys McCoy

: First African-American woman graduate of the University of Mississippi School of Law: Constance Slaughter-Harvey

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

• 1971

:First African-American woman to be elected to and serve in the Louisiana House of Representatives: Dorothy Mae Taylor

: First African American to become chief resident of cardiac surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland: Levi Watkins

:First woman judge in Milwaukee County and the first African-American judge in Wisconsin: Vel Phillips

:First African American since Reconstruction and the first woman ever to head a state agency in Florida when appointed as Secretary of the Department of Community Affairs: M. Athalie Range

: First African-American woman to earn a degree from University of Pittsburgh School of Law: Martha Richards Conley

: First African-American woman faculty member of Emory University and founding director of the first African-American and African-Studies degree-granting program in the South: Delores P. Aldridge

: First two African Americans to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the Medical College of Georgia: John Harper and Frank Rumph

: First African-American woman to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from Jefferson Medical College (Pennsylvania): Cora LeEthel Christian

: First African American and first woman judge in the state of Nebraska: Elizabeth Pittman

: First African American elected to Congress from Maryland: Parren Mitchell

: First African-American woman to serve on the Iowa State Board of Public Instruction: Virginia Harper

: First tenured African-American professor at Harvard Divinity School: Preston Williams

: First African American to play varsity football for the University of Alabama: John Mitchell Jr.

: First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics from Louisiana State University: Dolores Richard Spikes

• 1972

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

: First African-American woman elected to the Colorado State House of Representatives: Arie Parks Taylor

: First African Americans elected to the Selma City Council, Alabama since Reconstruction: Lorenzo Harrison Sr., Frederick D. Reese, Ernest Doyle, James Kimbrough and the Rev. William Kemp Sr.

: First African-American woman associate professor at Georgetown University Law Center: Anita Martin

: First woman to earn a master's degree in Engineering Management from Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee: Yvonne Clark

: First African American to earn a Ph.D. from Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina: James Edward Bostic Jr.

: First African-American woman to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the University of Florida College of Medicine: Cassandra J. Ndiforchu

: First African-American physician to serve as president of the Seattle Academy of Internal Medicine: Alvin J. Thompson

: First African American news anchor in the New York City area (WNBC-TV): Carl Stokes

: First African American elected to Congress from the state of Georgia since Reconstruction: Andrew Young

: First African American to conduct the Metropolitan Opera orchestra of New York City: Henry Lewis

: First African American elected to the Maine legislature: Gerald Talbot

: First African-American woman from North Texas elected to public office (Texas House of Representatives): Eddie Bernice Johnson

: First African-American woman elected to the Connecticut General Assembly: Margaret E. Morton

: First African American professor in the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music at the University of Memphis: G. James Gholson Jr.

: First African American (and first African-American woman) faculty member at Auburn University (College of Liberal Arts as a French and history instructor): Josetta Matthews

: First African-American woman to earn her doctorate degree in Human Development at the University of Chicago: E. Kitch Childs

: First African-American woman to graduate from the University of Connecticut School of Law: Constance Belton Green

• 1973

: First African-American woman elected to the Massachusetts General Court: Doris Bunte

: First African-American woman elected to the Dallas City Council: Lucy Patterson

:First African-American woman to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri: Karen LaFrance Scruggs

:First two African Americans to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Texas: Charles Douglas Foutz and Johnny Lee Henry

:First African Americans to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine: Janice Marie Fox, Judith Ann Ingram, Donald Gregory Weathers, and Roger O'Niel Whitmire

: First African-American chief surgeon for the New York City Police Department: Clarence G. Robinson Jr.

: First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in biophysics from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign: Anna Coble

: Fourth African-American woman in the U.S. Congress and the first to represent the state of Illinois and the Midwestern United States: Cardiss Collins

: First African-American woman to head the public school system in a major city (District of Columbia Public Schools): Barbara Sizemore

: First African-American woman appointed to a regular judgeship in Texas, and served on the City of Austin, Texas Municipal Court for twenty years: Harriet Mitchell Murphy

• 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

: First African American elected to the Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal: Ernest Nathan Morial

: First African-American woman and first woman elected judge in Louisiana: Joan Bernard Armstrong

: One of the first African Americans elected to the Alabama Senate since Reconstruction: U. W. Clemon

: First African-American woman to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the University of Alabama School of Medicine: Patience Hodges Claybon

:First African-American woman to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Texas: Kathryn Haley Flangin

:First African Americans to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from Penn State University College of Medicine: Janice C. McIntosh, James F. Byers, Theodore R. Densley, Wade A. Johnson, and Lewis E. Mitchell

:First African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the University of Utah School of Medicine: William Anthony Robinson

:First African American city commissioner in Portland, Oregon: Charles Jordan

: First African-American woman elected to the Montana Legislature: Geraldine W. Travis

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

: First African-American woman to serve as a Newark, New Jersey Municipal Court Judge: Golden E. Johnson

: First African-American woman to graduate from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine: Dolores Mercedes Franklin

• 1975

: First African-American woman in the state of California to receive a license to practice psychology: Gail E. Wyatt

: First African-American women to earn a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Washington School of Medicine: Blanche Marie Chavers and Robin Eleanor Wragg

: First two African-American women to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the Medical College of Georgia: Angelica Valencia Sims and Elizabeth Hawkins Woods

: First two African-American women to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the University of Colorado School of Medicine: LaRae H. Washington and Deborah Green

: First two African-American women to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the University of California at Davis School of Medicine: Sandra Dian Battis and Diane Loren Pemberton

: First four African-Americans to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook: Janice C. Lark, Mitchelene J. Morgan, Paul J. Fox and Johnson B. Murray

: First African American on the board of directors of the Metropolitan Opera: Dorothy Maynor

: First African-American and the first woman public schools superintendent in Connecticut: Edythe J. Gaines

:First African-American woman probation officer for the Massachusetts Probation Service: Denyse Bardouille

• 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 mayor in New Mexico: Albert Johnson

:First African-American woman to be elected mayor in Mississippi: Unita Blackwell

:First three African Americans to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine: Stella Pinkney Jones, Johnnie Paris Frazier and Charles Edward Mathis, III

:First African American to get a residency in neurosurgery at the University of Minnesota: Alexa Canady

:First African-American woman chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder and the first African-American woman to head a major research university: Mary Frances Berry

:First African American graduate of what is now the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law: Joyce Williams Warren

: First woman, first African American, and first nurse to serve as deputy director of the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH): Rhetaugh Graves Dumas

:First African-American woman appointed as a judge in Mississippi: Constance Slaughter-Harvey

: First African-American woman elected to the Illinois Senate: Earlean Collins

: First African-American woman to receive a Doctor of Theology (ThD) from Harvard Divinity School: Rena Karefa-Smart

: First African-American woman to serve as Chairman of the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles: Mamie B. Reese

• 1977

:First African-American to serve on the California Supreme Court: Wiley W. Manuel

:First African-American speaker of the Pennsylvania 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 elected mayor of New Orleans: Ernest Nathan Morial

: First African-American woman to work as an investigative reporter in Chicago: Renee Ferguson

:First African-American woman judge in Massachusetts when appointed to be an associate justice of the Boston Municipal Court: Margaret Burnham

: First African-American woman admitted to practice law in Delaware: Paulette Sullivan Moore

: First African-American woman to graduate from University of Kentucky College of Engineering earning a degree in civil engineering: Ruth Coleman

: First-known African-American member of the Daughters of the American Revolution when she joined the Ezra Parker chapter in Royal Oak, Michigan: Karen Batchelor

: First African-American woman to graduate from Georgia Institute of Technology's College of Architecture: Ivenue Love-Stanley

• 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

: First African-American woman appointed as a judge in Maryland: Mabel Houze Hubbard

: First African-American women to graduate with a medical degree from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee: Darlene Dailey and Janis Adelaide Jones

: First African-American physician to serve as president of the Washington State Medical Association: Alvin J. Thompson

: First two African-American women to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the University of Massachusetts Medical School: Marcia Clair Bowling and Vernette Jones Bee

:First African-American elected to a statewide office in Wisconsin: Vel Phillips, office of Secretary of State

:First African-American pediatrician in Delaware: Patricia H. Purcell

• 1979

:First African-American elected to a statewide office in Illinois: Roland Burris, office of Comptroller

:First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at the University of California, Davis: Giovonnae Anderson

:First African-American woman law professor at Georgetown University Law Center to be awarded tenure: Patricia A. King

:First African-American president of the D.C. Medical Society: Charles H. Epps Jr.

:First two African-American women to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the University of Utah School of Medicine: Denise L. Capel and Marjorie S. Coleman

:First African American to serve as president of the American Cancer Society: LaSalle D. Leffall Jr.

:First African American to be the Poet Laureate of Maryland: Lucille Clifton

: First African-American woman to serve on the Iowa Board of Parole: Virginia Harper

: First African American appointed as a judge at the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts: David Sutherland Nelson

: First African-American mayor of the city of Birmingham, Alabama: Richard Arrington Jr.

: First African-American woman to chair a legislative committee in Maryland (Maryland House of Delegates Rules and Executive Nominations Committee): Hattie N. Harrison

:First African-American woman to graduate from the University of Delaware with a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering (civil engineering: Velda Jones-Potter

:First African-American woman and the first woman appointed as a judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas: Gabrielle Kirk McDonald

• 1980

:First African-American speaker of the California State Assembly: Willie Brown

:First African-American woman to be elected as a circuit court judge in Michigan: Lucile A. Watts

:First two African Americans to receive a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Cornell University: Gary Lynn Harris and Michael G. Spencer

:First African American selected to be president of the Medical College of Pennsylvania: Maurice C. Clifford

:First African American becomes Homecoming Queen of the University of Texas at Arlington: Wanda Holiday

:"First woman and the first African American to head a division of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources," when she became head of personnel: Margaret Sellers Walker

: First African-American elected to the Wyoming Legislature: Harriet Elizabeth Byrd

: First African-American women admitted to practice law in Nevada: Johnnie B. Rawlinson and Viveca Monet Woods

: First African-American woman to serve on the Atlanta City Council: Carolyn Long Banks

: First African-American woman and first woman elected to the bench in Durham County, North Carolina (District Court Judge): Karen Bethea-Shields

: First African American to serve on any appellate court in the State of Alabama when appointed to the Alabama Supreme Court: Oscar W. Adams

: First African-American woman to earn a doctorate in historical archaeology and African American history and culture from the University of Florida: Theresa A. Singleton

• 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

:First African American to serve as superintendent for the Chicago Public Schools district: Ruth B. Love

:First African American appointed professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine: Alvin H. Crawford

: First African American appointed director of the Michigan Department of Public Health: Bailus Walker Jr.

: First African-American woman to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (Maryland): Sabrina Ann Benjamin

: First African Americans and first African-American women to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the East Carolina University School of Medicine: Natalear R. Collins and Brenda Mills Klutz

: First poet laureate of Detroit, Michigan: Dudley Randall

: First African American to be named dean of the University of Michigan School of Nursing: Rhetaugh Graves Dumas

: First African-American woman to earn a PhD degree in astronomy (University of Maryland, College Park: Barbara A. Williams

: First African-American woman optometrist to practice in the state of Alabama: Juanakee Adams

: First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in computer science from Harvard University (at the time the degree was part of the applied mathematics program): Deborah Washington Brown

• 1982

: First African-American woman from Indiana elected to the U.S. House of Representatives: Katie Hall

:First African American and first woman to complete a neurosurgery residency at Case Western University, Cleveland, Ohio: M. Deborrah Hyde

:First African American to earn a Ph.D. in biological and agricultural engineering from North Carolina State University: Godfrey A. Gayle

:First African-American woman to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from Wright State University School of Medicine: Carol Jean Hubbard

:First African American to graduate from the University of Missouri-Rolla (geological engineering): Denise Annette Ford

:First African American to serve as the Baltimore, Maryland City Council President: Clarence H. Burns

:First African-American mayor of Chicago, Illinois: Harold Washington

• 1983

:First African American to be elected president of the National Association of Women Lawyers: Mahala Ashley Dickerson

:First African-American woman elected to the Greensboro City Council: Katie G. Dorsett

:First African American trustee of the University of Georgia: Hamilton E. Holmes

:First African Americans to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from Northeastern Ohio University College of Medicine: Rochelle A. Broome, Margo Shamberger, Yvonne A. Patterson, and John D. Lewis

:First African Americans to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa: Lori Margaret Campbell and Paul Jeffrey Smith

:First African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the East Tennessee State University James H. Quillen College of Medicine: Gregory Patterson

:First African-American woman judge in the state of Arkansas when appointed as a juvenile court judge: Joyce Williams Warren

:First African-American woman elected to the Cincinnati City Council: Marian Spencer

• 1984

:First African-American elected to a statewide office in Georgia since Reconstruction: Robert Benham, Georgia Court of Appeals

: First African-American woman to be elected to the Virginia General Assembly: Yvonne B. Miller

: First African American to be sworn in as the New York City Police Commissioner: Benjamin Ward

: First African-American woman to hold a Louisiana cabinet position (head of the state Department of Urban and Community Affairs): Dorothy Mae Taylor

: An African American was appointed as the first Poet Laureate of the District of Columbia: Sterling Allen Brown

: First African-American woman elected to the Oregon Legislature: Margaret Carter

: First African-American mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Wilson Goode

: First woman and first African-American president of the Chicago Teachers Union: Jacqueline B. Vaughn

• 1985

: First African-American woman to be elected to the Mississippi Legislature: Alyce Clarke

: First African-American woman appointed Administrator of the Boston Housing Authority: Doris Bunte

: First African American to serve on the Mississippi Supreme Court: Reuben V. Anderson

: First African-American president of the South Carolina Bar Association: I. S. Leevy Johnson

: First African American to be elected the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: Douglas Wilder

: First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT): Daphne L. Smith

• 1986

: First African-American women elected to the Oklahoma State Senate: Vicki Miles-LaGrange and Maxine Horner

: First African-American woman elected as county commissioner in Payne County, Oklahoma: Bernice Mitchell

: First woman and second African American to receive a doctorate in musical arts from Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut: Kay George Roberts

: First African-American student to earn a Ph.D. in applied economics from Clemson University: Gloria Bromell Tinubu

• 1987

: First African-American justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court: Robert D. Glass

: First African-American woman to anchor a nightly newscast in Cleveland, and the first solo anchor of a weeknight newscast in that city: Romona Robinson

: First African-American woman commissioner of the Los Angeles Board of Public Works: Myrlie Evers-Williams

: First African-American mayor of Baltimore, Maryland: Clarence H. Burns

: First African-American woman president of Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia: Johnnetta Cole

: First woman and first African-American woman appointed mayor of Little Rock, Arkansas (Pulaski County): Lottie Shackelford

: First African-American woman elected to the Alabama State Board of Education: Ethel Harris Hall

• 1988

: First African-American elected to the Wyoming Senate: Harriet Elizabeth Byrd

: First African-American woman elected to the Vermont House of Representatives: Louvenia Bright

: First African-American woman in the United States to serve on the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania: Juanita Kidd Stout

: First African-American woman to earn a PhD at the University of Michigan in chemical engineering: Rosemarie Wesson

: First African-American woman to earn a doctorate in electrical engineering at Rice University, Houston, Texas: Sandra Johnson

: First African-American woman to become a superior court judge in Georgia: Leah Ward Sears

: First African American Poet Laureate of Rhode Island: Michael S. Harper

: First African-American woman to receive tenure at Yale University: Sylvia Ardyn Boone

• 1989

: First African American elected student body president of Texas A&M University: Ashanti Johnson

: First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in Old Testament Studies from Princeton Theological Seminary: Renita J. Weems

: First African American to be the Poet Laureate of Louisiana: Pinkie Gordon Lane

:First African American to serve on the Supreme Court of Georgia: Robert Benham

• 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

:First African-American principal dancer for the Houston Ballet: Lauren Anderson

: First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech): Janet C. Rutledge

: First African American and first woman chief administrator of the flagship of the four campus Houston system when appointed president of the University of Houston: Marguerite Ross Barnett

• 1991

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

: First woman to serve as a California horse racing steward: Cheryl White

: First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from University of California at Berkeley: Valerie E. Taylor

: First African American to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the University of Nevada School of Medicine: Carl Demardrian Virgil

: First African-American woman appointed speaker pro tempore, the second highest position in the Texas House of Representatives: Wilhelmina Delco

:First African American Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives: Dan Blue

:First African-American woman to receive tenure at Grinnell College: Kesho Y. Scott

• 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

:First African-American woman elected to Congress from Michigan: Barbara-Rose Collins

:First African American since the Reconstruction era elected to represent Florida in the United States Congress: Carrie Meek

:First African Americans to win election to the United States House of Representatives from North Carolina since 1898: Eva Clayton and Mel Watt

:First African-American woman to receive a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Virginia: Marta Dark McNeese

:First African American elected to the Louisiana Public Service Commission (PSC): Irma Muse Dixon

:First African American woman to hold a North Carolina Cabinet post when appointed Secretary of the Department of Administration: Katie G. Dorsett

:First African American elected to a statewide executive office in North Carolina (State Auditor): Ralph Campbell Jr.

: First African-American woman to serve on the Ohio Supreme Court: Sara J. Harper

:First African-American woman to serve as an appellate court judge in Texas: Gaynelle Griffin Jones

• 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 woman Senator from Illinois).

:First African-American woman elected to the Selma City Council, Alabama: Nancy Sewell

:First African American to be the Portland, Oregon police chief: Charles Moose

: First African-American woman to be appointed to one of the Florida District Courts of Appeal (Second District Court of Appeal): Peggy Quince

: First African American woman elected as district attorney in Rockingham County and in the state of North Carolina: Belinda J. Foster

: First African American appointed to the Colorado Supreme Court: Gregory K. Scott

: First woman, first African American, and youngest provost in Stanford University's history: Condoleezza Rice

: First African-American woman to earn a doctorate in industrial engineering in Oklahoma (University of Oklahoma): Pamela McCauley

: First woman (and African American woman) to serve as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Texas: Gaynelle Griffin Jones

• 1994

: First African-American woman elected to the Nevada Legislature: Bernice Mathews

: First African-American woman elected to the Delaware Senate: Margaret Rose Henry

:First African-American woman to serve as a Colorado state senator: Gloria Tanner

:First African-American woman from Alabama to earn a Ph.D. degree in physics (Alabama A&M University): Shelia Nash-Stevenson

:First African-American woman to be the chief of the Atlanta Police Department (also first chief of police of any major city in the United States): Beverly Harvard

:First African-American woman promoted into the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Texas Rangers Division: Christine Nix

• 1995

:First African American selected to be president of the Dallas County Medical Society, Texas: James Leonard Sweatt, III

:First African American and first woman appointed to the Indiana Supreme Court: Myra C. Selby

:First African-American woman and the second woman to serve on the Arkansas Supreme Court: Andree Layton Roaf

: First African-American woman to chair the Georgia Board of Regents: Juanita Baranco

• 1996

: First African-American woman elected to the Oregon State Senate: Avel Gordly

: First African American to serve as mayor of San Francisco, California: Willie Brown

• 1997

:First African American and the first woman appointed and later elected Columbus, Ohio City Attorney: Janet E. Jackson

• 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 of Georgia (named to fill unexpired term in 1997): Thurbert E. Baker

:First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Michigan: Beth A. Brown

:First African American to serve as a mayor on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and to be elected to any countywide office in Worcester County, Maryland (Orphan’s Court Judge): Fannie Birckhead

:First woman and the first African American to be appointed as Chief Justice for Administration and Management for the Massachusetts Trial Court: Barbara A. Dortch-Okara

:First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Polytechnic University and Principal Technical Patent Architect at NVIDIA: Ruthie D. Lyle

:First African American woman and first woman to become a San Francisco cable car gripwoman: Fannie Mae Barnes

:First African American to serve as president of Marygrove College, Detroit, Michigan: Glenda Price

:First African-American state senator in West Virginia: Marie Redd

:First African-American woman to serve as a tenured Harvard Law School professor: Lani Guinier

:First African-American woman to become a tenured professor at Johns Hopkins University: Fannie Gaston-Johansson

• 1999

:First African-American woman justice of the Supreme Court of Florida: Peggy Quince

:First African American to earn a doctoral degree in oceanography from Texas A&M University: Ashanti Johnson

:First African-American woman to earn her Ph.D. in astronomy at University of Washington: Dara Norman

: First African-American woman to serve on the Georgia Court of Appeals: M. Yvette Miller

: First African-American woman to earn tenure at the University of Chicago Law School: Tracey Meares

21st century

• 2001

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

:First African-American woman in the Missouri Air National Guard to be promoted to Brigadier general: Edith Mitchell

:First African American elected mayor pro tem of Greensboro: Yvonne Johnson

:First African-American woman and second person to be selected poet laureate of Detroit, Michigan: Naomi Long Madgett

:First African American Poet Laureate of Connecticut: Marilyn Nelson

:First African American to earn a Ph.D. degree in applied mathematics from the University of Colorado Boulder: Rudy Horne

:First African-American member of the Texas Supreme Court: Wallace B. Jefferson (See also 2004)

:First woman and first African-American woman to serve as a permanent department chair at the University of Pittsburgh (department of family medicine): Jeannette South-Paul

• 2002

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

:First African-American woman president of a State Medical Society in the United States (President of the Medical Association State of Alabama): Regina Benjamin

:First African American appointed as Poet Laureate of New Jersey: Amiri Baraka

:First African-American chief of the San Francisco Police Department: Prentice Earl Sanders

: First African-American woman appointed to the Nevada state justice system (Las Vegas justice court): Karen Bennett-Haron

: First African-American woman and the first woman elected mayor of Atlanta, Georgia and the first African-American woman to be elected mayor of a major Southern city: Shirley Franklin

:First African American elected president of the Alabama State Bar association: Fred Gray

• 2003

:First African-American woman to be crowned Miss Florida in the Miss America pageant's 81-year history: Ericka Dunlap

:First African-American woman to serve as judge on the Jefferson County, Alabama Circuit Court: Helen Shores Lee

• 2004

:First African-American and first woman 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

: First African-American judge appointed to the Nevada Supreme Court: Michael L. Douglas

: First African American head football coach in the Southeastern Conference (SEC): Sylvester Croom Jr.

:First African-American named Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court: Wallace B. Jefferson (See also 2001)

:First African-American woman to serve as Minority Leader in the Missouri Senate: Maida Coleman

• 2005

:First African-American woman chief justice of a state supreme court in the United States when she became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia: Leah Ward Sears

:First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. degree in computer science from North Carolina State University: Alicia Nicki Washington

• 2006

:First African-American elected governor of Massachusetts: Deval Patrick

:First African-American lieutenant governor of New York: David Paterson

:First African-American woman to graduate with a PhD in physics from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland: Jami Valentine

:First African-American woman to serve on the North Carolina Supreme Court: Patricia Timmons-Goodson

:First African American to serve in the Cabinet of the State of Utah when appointed to the chair of the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole: Keith N. Hamilton

:First African-American woman to earn a PhD in New Testament from Harvard University: Mitzi J. Smith

:First African American to be elected district attorney in Dallas County, Texas: Craig Watkins

• 2007

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

:First African American elected mayor of Greensboro: Yvonne Johnson

:First African American elected mayor of Wichita, Kansas: Carl Brewer

: First African-American woman to earn tenure at Yale Law School: Tracey Meares

• 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

:First African-American woman to head any branch of Florida government when she assumed the office of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Florida: Peggy Quince

:First African-American woman elected to the Kansas Senate: Oletha Faust-Goudeau

:First African-American woman to be elected president of the American Academy of Religion (AAR): Emilie Townes

:First African American appointed Madison, Wisconsin poet laureate: Fabu Carter

:First African-American woman to earn her PhD in Biomedical Physics at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA): Julianne Pollard-Larkin

:First African American crowned Miss South Dakota: Charlie Buhler

• 2009

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

:First African-American woman elected to the Boston City Council: Ayanna Pressley

:First African American appointed to serve as a United States Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama: Kenyen R. Brown

• 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

:First African-American woman elected to Congress from Alabama: Terri Sewell

:First African-American woman elected from District 42 representing Aurora, Colorado to the Colorado State House of Representatives as well as the first Speaker pro Tempore: Rhonda Fields

:First African-American woman to be attorney general in New Jersey: Paula Dow

:First African-American woman elected mayor of Tacoma, Washington: Marilyn Strickland

:First African-American woman to earn a PhD degree in nuclear engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign: J'Tia Hart

:First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in astrophysics at the University of California, Berkeley: Nia Imara

• 2011

:First African-American woman to earn tenure in the College of Engineering at Purdue University: Monica Cox

:First African-American woman to serve as a justice on the Ohio Supreme Court: Yvette McGee Brown

• 2012

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

:Second African-American woman and the fourth African American to earn a doctoral degree in physics from The University of Alabama at Birmingham: Hadiyah-Nicole Green

:First African-American woman to serve as a Jefferson County, Alabama municipal and circuit court judge: Carole Smitherman

:First person to serve simultaneously as a state poet laureate (Poet Laureate of Mississippi and the U.S. Poet Laureate: Natasha Trethewey

:First African-American woman and first woman to lead a conference in the New York State Legislature: Andrea Stewart-Cousins

:First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from University of Tennessee: Jamie Porter

:First African American to graduate from Vanderbilt University with a Ph.D. in Human Genetics: Janina Jeff

:First Poet Laureate of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Sonia Sanchez

• 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

: First African-American woman to serve as Chief Deputy Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia: Cynthia Eppes Hudson

: First African-American woman to serve as a judge on the Maryland Court of Appeals, the state's highest court: Shirley M. Watts

: First African American to serve as the chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court: Bernette Joshua Johnson

: First African American dean at Vanderbilt Divinity School: Emilie Townes

: First African-American woman to serve as a Justice of the Massachusetts Appeals Court: Geraldine Hines

• 2014

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

:First African-American woman to represent New Jersey in the U.S. House of Representatives: Bonnie Watson Coleman

:First African-American woman to be elected to the Illinois House of Representatives 103rd district: Carol Ammons

:First woman and the first African American to lead Trinity College (Connecticut): Joanne Berger-Sweeney

:First African-American woman to be named the John H. Harland dean of Emory University's Goizueta Business School: Erika H. James

: First African-American woman to complete her PhD in astrophysics at Yale University: Jedidah Isler

: First African-American woman to serve as an associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court: Geraldine Hines

:First African-American woman to serve as mayor of Teaneck, New Jersey, as well as the first African-American woman to serve as the mayor of any municipality in Bergen County, New Jersey, the state's most populous county: Lizette Parker

:First African-American woman to complete her PhD in astrophysics at Yale University: Jedidah Isler

:First African American woman to become a district attorney in Texas: Erleigh Norville Wiley

• 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

:First African-American woman from Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, selected for the government's Senior Executive Service (SES): Juanita Christensen

:First African Americans to own a cannabis dispensary and an edibles business in Colorado: Wanda James and Scott Durrah

:First African Americans and first twin siblings to be co-Poet Laureate of Delaware: Nnamdi Chukwuocha and Al Mills

• 2016

:First African-American woman to serve as superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the second-largest school district in the United States: Michelle King

:First African American to serve as president of Wellesley College: Paula Johnson

:First African-American woman elected to the Maine Legislature: Rachel Talbot Ross

:First African-American woman to serve as the Wilmington, Delaware City Treasurer: Velda Jones-Potter

:First African-American woman to serve as president of the Wilmington, Delaware City Council: Hanifa Shabazz

:First African-American woman to graduate with a PhD in physics from the Louisiana State University: Michelle Lollie

• 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

:First African-American woman to serve as district attorney in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: Kelley B. Hodge

:First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences from Florida State University: Lataisia Jones

: First African-American woman to be a popularly elected mayor in Massachusetts when inaugurated as mayor of Framingham, Massachusetts: Yvonne M. Spicer

• 2018

:First African-American woman major-party candidate for governor (Georgia): Stacey Abrams

:First African-American elected Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Garlin Gilchrist

:First African-American Attorney General of New York: Letitia James

:First African-American elected Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Juliana Stratton

:First African-American woman elected to represent Connecticut in Congress: Jahana Hayes

:First African-American woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts: Ayanna Pressley

:First African American to be appointed North Carolina Poet Laureate: Jaki Shelton Green

:First African American official Indiana State Poet Laureate: Adrian Matejka

:First African-American woman mayor of San Francisco, California: London Breed

:First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT): Mareena Robinson Snowden

:First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from University of Michigan: Ciara Sivels

• 2019

:First African-American elected Attorney General of Kentucky: Daniel Cameron

:First Surgeon General for the State of California: Nadine Burke Harris

:First African-American woman elected to be chair of the Michigan Democratic Party: Lavora Barnes

:First African-American woman to serve as director of the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) in its 143-year history: Ngozi Ezike

:First African-American woman to serve as chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court: Cheri Beasley

:First African-American Woman elected as a Portland City Commissioner, Portland, Oregon: Jo Ann Hardesty

:First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in computer science at Cornell University: Rediet Abebe

:First African-American woman and first woman elected Majority Leader of the New York State Senate: Andrea Stewart-Cousins

:First African-American and first woman elected Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates: Adrienne A. Jones

:First African American and Native American woman to serve as a judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas: Ada E. Brown

• 2020

:First African-American congresswoman elected in Missouri's history: Cori Bush

:First African-American elected Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: Mark Robinson

:First African-American woman and first woman to be named dean of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania: Erika H. James

:First African-American woman to serve on the Raleigh City Council: Stormie Forte

:First African-American Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court: Kimberly S. Budd

:First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Florida:Jasmine Bowers

:First African American in a legislative leadership position in Maine when elected as House assistant majority leader: Rachel Talbot Ross

:First African-American woman to serve on the New Jersey Supreme Court: Fabiana Pierre-Louis

: First African-American woman to serve on the Wisconsin Court of Appeals: Maxine Aldridge White

• 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

:First African-American woman to serve as United States federal judge for the Northern District of Mississippi: Debra M. Brown

:First African American to be Poet Laureate of Kentucky: Crystal Wilkinson

:First African-American woman to serve as the New York state acting Lieutenant Governor: Andrea Stewart-Cousins

:First African American and first woman to serve as acting mayor of Boston: Kim Janey (upon the resignation of Marty Walsh to take the position of United States Secretary of Labor in the Cabinet of Joe Biden)

• 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

:First African-American woman elected to an executive office in Delaware (the Delaware Auditor of Accounts): Lydia York

:First African American named Poet Laureate of Alabama (also youngest person to hold this position): Ashley M. Jones

:First African American to be appointed to the Illinois Supreme Court: Lisa Holder White

:First African-American general manager in the National Hockey League (NHL): Mike Grier

:First African-American woman promoted to captain of the Little Rock, Arkansas Fire Department: Quatecia Wilson

:First African-American woman to serve as chief of the Arcola, Texas Police Department: Arika Carr

:First African American to earn a graduate degree in marine science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Aliyah Griffith

:First African-American president of Harvard University: Claudine Gay

:First woman and third Black person to serve as the New York City Police Commissioner: Keechant Sewell

:First African American speaker of the New York City Council: Adrienne Adams

• 2023

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

: First African-American woman to serve as the Secretary of the State of Connecticut: Stephanie Thomas

: First African-American Poet Laureate of Michigan: Nandi Comer

: First African-American woman named the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS) Secretary: Carolyn Scruggs

: First African-American woman to lead a science department (Statistics) at North Carolina State University: Kimberly Sellers

:First African-American woman to serve on the North Carolina Council of State: Jessica Holmes

:First African-American woman appointed chair of the state of California Assembly Transportation Committee: Lori Wilson

• 2024

:First African American elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Oregon: Janelle Bynum

:First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in Robotics from the University of Michigan: Oluwami Dosunmu-Ogunbi

:First African American to become Poet Laureate of Texas: Amanda Johnston

• 2025

:First woman and first African American to represent Delaware in both chambers of Congress: Lisa Blunt Rochester

:First African-American elected Attorney General of Virginia: Jay Jones

:First African American to serve as Nebraska State Poet: Jewel Rodgers

:First African American to be named Miss Wisconsin: Willow Newell

:First African-American woman elected mayor of Plymouth, North Carolina: Crystal Davis

See also

• List of first African American mayors

References