Roll Call: Black Members of Congress
Cleo Fields
Congressman Cleo Fields served Louisiana's 4th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 1997 (103rd-104th Congresses). Fields was the youngest member of the 103rd Congress and, prior to his Congressional service, had been the youngest...
Walter R. Tucker III
Congressman Walter Tucker represented California's 37th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 1995 (103rd-104th Congresses). Tucker served on the Public Works and Transportation (later renamed Transportation and Infrastructure) and...
Mel Reynolds
Congressman Mel Reynolds represented Illinois's 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 1995 (103rd-104th Congresses). He served on the Economic and Educational Opportunities and the Ways and Means committees. Reynolds earned...
Eva M. Clayton
Congresswoman Eva Clayton served as a representative of North Carolina's 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1992 to 2003 (102nd-107th Congresses). She was the first African American woman to be elected to Congress from North Carolina....
Maxine Waters
Congresswoman Maxine Waters has represented California in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1991 (102nd Congress-Present). Waters made history as the first woman and first African American chair of the House Financial Services Committee. A key figure in...
Eleanor Holmes Norton
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton has been a delegate from the District of Columbia since January 3, 1991 (102nd Congress-Present). Norton serves on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. President...
William Jennings Jefferson
Congressman William Jefferson represented Louisiana's 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1991 to 2009 (102nd-110th Congresses). Jefferson sat on the Education, District of Columbia, Labor, and the Merchant Marine and Fisheries...
Gary A. Franks
Congressman Gary Franks served Connecticut's 5th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1991 to 1997 (102nd-104th Congresses). A Republican, Franks served on the Armed Services, Commerce, Select Aging, Energy and Commerce, and Small Business...
Barbara-Rose Collins
Congresswoman Barbara-Rose Collins represented congressional districts in Michigan in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1991 to 1997 (102nd-104th Congresses). Her committee assignments included the Public Works and Transportation; Transportation and...
Lucien Edward Blackwell
Congressman Lucien Blackwell represented Pennsylvania's 2nd Congressional District from 1991 to 1995 (102nd-103rd Congresses) in the U.S. House of Representatives. Before his time in Congress, Korean War veteran Blackwell was active in state and local politics,...
Donald Milford Payne
Congressman Donald Payne represented New York's 10th Congressional District from 1989 until his death on March 6, 2012 (101st-112th Congresses). Before his election to the U.S. House of Representatives, Payne was a business executive and teacher. At the time of his...
George Henry White
Congressman George White, enslaved until the age of 10, was the last Black American to serve in Congress until 1928. He represented North Carolina from 1897 to 1901 (55th-56th Congresses), serving on the Agriculture and District of Columbia committees. In 1900, White...
Oscar Stanton De Priest
Congressman Oscar De Priest was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1929 to represent Illinois' 1st Congressional District. De Priest, a Republican, was the first African American elected to Congress in the 20th century and the first Black representative...
William Levi Dawson
Congressman William Dawson served in the U.S. House of Representatives for nearly three decades. Dawson, a well-established politician in Chicago, was elected in 1942 as a Democratic Representative from Illinois, serving from 1943 until he died on November 9, 1970...
Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was an American Baptist pastor and politician who represented New York City in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1945 until 1971 (78th-89th and 91st Congresses, he was elected to the 90th Congress, but not seated). Powell, a...
Charles Coles Diggs Jr.
Congressman Charles Diggs was the first African American to represent Michigan in the U.S. House of Representatives. He served the 13th District of Michigan from 1955 until his resignation on June 3, 1980 (84th-96th Congresses). Diggs was a leader on civil rights...
Robert Nelson Cornelius Nix Sr.
Congressman Robert Nix became the first African American to represent Pennsylvania in Congress after winning a 1958 special election to fill the vacancy left by Representative Earl Chudoff. Nix served Pennsylvania's 2nd Congressional District from 1958 to 1979...
Thomas Ezekiel Miller
After successfully contesting another candidate's election, Congressman Thomas Miller represented South Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives from September 1890 to March 1891 (51st Congress). He was assigned to the Library of Congress Committee. Despite...
John Mercer Langston
Congressman John Langston was the first Black American to represent Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives. He served part of one term (1890-1891) after successfully contesting the election of another candidate to the 51st Congress. As a member of the House...
Henry Plummer Cheatham
Congressman Henry Cheatham represented North Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1889 to 1893 (51st-52nd Congresses) and was a member of the House Expenditures on Public Buildings and Agriculture committees. Born into slavery, Cheatham attended public...