Category: History

Oscar DuConge, a resilient politician, overcame the odds to become Waco, Texas’s first African American mayor. Born on April 19, 1909, to unnamed parents in Pass Christian, Mississippi, DuConge was…

The first African American mayor of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Johnny DuPree was also the longest serving mayor of that city. DuPree was born in Fort Benning, Geogia to poor, illiterate parents…

Williams Stanford Hart Sr was a politician who served as mayor of East Orange, New Jersey between 1970 and 1978. This made him the first African American mayor of a…

M.W. “Teddy” Thornhill Jr., a civil rights activist and first African American mayor of Lynchburg, Virginia, was born Murrell Warren Thornhill, Jr. on March 31, 1921, to Murrell W. Thornhill,…

The first African American mayor of Buffalo, New York, Byron Brown, was born on September 24, 1958 in Hollis, Queens, New York. He attended PS 134 in Hollis and, later,…

Penfield Tate II was a politician, LGBTQ supporter, and Boulder, Colorado’s first African American mayor. Tate was born on June 11, 1931, to Penfield Tate Sr and Vera Jane Houston…

Mabel Fairbanks, known as the Grand Dame of African American figure skaters, was born on November 14, 1915, in Jacksonville, Florida. She was the 11th of 14 siblings. Her father…

Daniel T. Brown, the first African American mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee in the city’s 220-year history, was born at home in the Five Points area of Knoxville, Tennessee, on December…

Terry Bellamy, the first African American and second woman to serve as mayor of Asheville, North Carolina, was born Terry Michelle Whitmire on July 9, 1972, to Floyd Smith, a…

In the article below New Jersey historian Dr. Joseph A. LaRosa allows us a glimpse into the rarely discussed last two national conventions of the Niagara Movement that took place…