Roll Call: Black Members of Congress
Elijah Eugene Cummings
Congressman Elijah Cummings was a representative for Maryland's 7th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1996 until his death in 2019 (104th-116th Congresses). Cummings previously served in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1983 to 1996...
Albert Russell Wynn
Congressman Albert Wynn represented Maryland's 4th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2008 (103rd-110th Congresses). Wynn served on the Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs (later named Financial Services); Foreign Affairs; and...
Melvin L. Watt
Congressman Mel Watt represented North Carolina's 12th Congressional District from 1993 to 2014 (103rd-113th Congresses). Before coming to Congress, Watt was an attorney specializing in minority business and economic development law. In Congress, he served on the...
Alcee Lamar Hastings
Congressman Alcee Hastings was a representative from Florida in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 until his death on April 6, 2021 (103rd-117th Congresses). Before Congress, Hastings was a District Court judge in Florida. He was the first African American...
Bennie Thompson
Congressman Bennie Thompson has represented Mississippi's 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1993 (103rd Congress-Present). Thompson is the longest-serving African American elected official from Mississippi and the lone Democrat in...
Bobby L. Rush
Congressman Bobby Rush represented Illinois's 1st Congressional District from 1993 to 2023 (103rd-117th Congresses). A former Black Panther and U.S. Army veteran, Rush served as an alderman, Chicago City Council member, and Deputy Chairman of the Illinois Democratic...
Robert C. (Bobby) Scott
Congressman Bobby Scott has represented Virginia's 3rd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1993 (103rd Congress-Present). Scott was the first African American elected to Congress from the Commonwealth of Virginia following Reconstruction...
Sanford Dixon Bishop Jr.
Congressman Sanford Bishop has represented Georgia's 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1993 (103rd Congress-Present). Before his tenure in Congress, Bishop was a member of the Georgia House of Representatives and the Georgia Senate....
Corrine Brown
Congresswoman Corrine Brown represented Florida's 3rd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2017 (103rd-114th Congresses). Before her tenure in Congress, Brown served for ten years in the Florida House of Representatives and was a...
Eddie Bernice Johnson
Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson represented the 30th Congressional District of Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2023 (103rd-117th Congress). She was the first African American to serve in the House from the Dallas area. She was also the...
James Enos Clyburn
Congressman James Clyburn has represented South Carolina's 6th Congressional District since 1993 (103rd Congress-Present). Clyburn served as House Majority Whip from 2007 to 2009 (110th-111th Congresses) and from 2019 to 2023 (116th-117th Congresses). Before Congress,...
Juanita Millender-McDonald
Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald served as a representative of California's 37th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1996 until she died of cancer on April 22, 2007 (104th-110th Congresses). Millender-McDonald was the first African...
Sheila Jackson Lee
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee represented the 18th Congressional District of Texas from 1995 until her death on July 19, 2024 (104th-118th Congresses). Before her career in Congress, Lee served as staff counsel for the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations,...
Chaka Fattah
Congressman Chaka Fattah served as representative for Pennsylvania's 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2016 (104th-114th Congress). Before Congress, Fattah served in the Pennsylvania Senate and the Pennsylvania House of...
Jesse L. Jackson Jr.
Congressman Jesse L. Jackson Jr served Illinois's 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2012 (104th -112th Congresses). Before entering the House, he was secretary of the Democratic National Committee's Black Caucus, the national...
Julius Caesar (J.C.) Watts Jr.
Congressman J.C. Watts represented Oklahoma's 4th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003 (104th-107th Congresses). He was the first Black representative elected from Oklahoma and the first Republican to win the district in 72...
Donna Marie Christensen
Congresswoman Donna Christensen was a delegate from the U.S. Virgin Islands in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1997 to 2015 (105th-113th Congresses). Before her tenure in Congress, Christensen was a practicing physician and medical director at several...
Victor O. Frazer
Congressman Victor Frazer was a delegate from the U.S. Virgin Islands' at-large Congressional District from 1995 to 1997 (104th Congress). Before Congress, Frazer worked as a lawyer and later served as general counsel for the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority....
Alan Dupree Wheat
Congressman Alan Wheat represented Missouri's 5th Congressional District from 1983 to 1995 (98th-103rd Congresses). Before Congress, Wheat worked as an economist for the federal government and local organizations. He also served in the Missouri General Assembly. Wheat...
Major Robert Odell Owens
Congressman Major Owens represented congressional districts in New York from 1983 to 2007 (98th-110th Congresses). Trained as a librarian, Owens began his career at the Brooklyn Public Library. He became active in the Congress of Racial Equality and other community...