The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) is a caucus made up of African-American members of the United States Congress. Representative Steven Horsford from Nevada is the caucus chairperson, having succeeded Joyce Beatty from Ohio in 2023. Historically, the CBC mainly consisted of members of the Democratic Party, although its founders envisioned a non-partisan organization and there were many instances of bipartisan collaboration with Republicans.
Horace Julian Bond was an American social activist, leader of the civil rights movement, politician, professor, and writer. While he was a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, during the early 1960s, he helped establish the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In 1971, he co-founded the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, and served as its first president for nearly a decade.
The Tennessee House of Representatives is the lower house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee.
Carl Edward Sanders Sr. was an American attorney and politician who served as the 74th governor of Georgia from 1963 to 1967.
The Maryland Senate, sometimes referred to as the Maryland State Senate, is the upper house of the General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland. Composed of 47 senators elected from an equal number of constituent single-member districts, the Senate is responsible, along with the Maryland House of Delegates, for passage of laws in Maryland, and for confirming executive appointments made by the Governor of Maryland.
The Georgia Republican Party is the affiliate of the Republican Party in the U.S. state of Georgia and one of the two major political parties. It is currently the dominant party in the state and is chaired by Joshua McKoon.
The 111th United States Congress, in session from 2009 to 2010, consisted of 541 elected officials from 50 states, five territories, and the District of Columbia. It is the federal legislature of the United States of America, continuing an unbroken chain dating back to the 1st Congress in 1789.
The National Black Caucus of State Legislators(NBCSL) is an American political organization composed of African Americans elected to state legislatures in the United States and its territories.
Vanessa Joyce Summers is a Democratic member of the Indiana House of Representatives, representing the 99th District in her native Indianapolis since being appointed to the seat following the death of her father Del. Joseph W. Summers in 1991. Like her father, Vanessa Summers won re-election multiple times, and in 2012 became the first female as well as the first African-American to lead the Indiana House Democratic Caucus.
Nina Hudson Turner is an American politician, and television personality. A member of the Democratic Party, she was a Cleveland City Council member from 2006 to 2008 and a member of the Ohio Senate from 2008 until 2014. Turner was the Democratic nominee for Ohio Secretary of State in 2014, but lost in the general election against incumbent Jon Husted, receiving 35.5 percent of the vote. A self-described democratic socialist, her politics have been variously described as progressive, left-wing, or far-left.
Rashad Jamal Taylor is a political consultant and former politician from Atlanta, Georgia. A Democrat, he served from 2009 to 2013 in the Georgia House of Representatives, representing the City of Atlanta from the 55th House District. He was first elected in November 2008, at 27 years old, making him the youngest serving member of the General Assembly. After re-election in 2010, he was elected Vice Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, the fourth highest ranking leadership position in the House. At 31, Taylor was the youngest member of the General Assembly leadership, House or Senate, Democrat or Republican.
Grace Towns Hamilton was an American politician who was the first African-American woman elected to the Georgia General Assembly. As executive director of the Atlanta Urban League from 1943 to 1960, Hamilton was involved in issues of housing, health care, schools and voter registration within the black community. She was 1964 co-founder of the bi-racial Partners for Progress to help government and the private sector effect compliance with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1973, Hamilton became a principal architect for the revision of the Atlanta City Charter. She was advisor to the United States Civil Rights Commission from 1985 to 1987.
Raumesh Aleza Akbari is an American politician and member of the Tennessee Senate for the 29th district since 2019. She was formerly a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives for the 91st district. She currently serves as First Vice Chair of the Education Committee, and a member of the Commerce and Labor Committee, and the Ethics Subcommittee. She is a member of the Democratic Party.
Valerie Jean Foushee is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for North Carolina's 4th congressional district since 2023 as a member of the Democratic Party. Elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives for the 50th district in 2012, she was appointed to represent the 23rd senatorial district in 2013.
Ronald Eugene Reynolds is an American politician and disbarred lawyer who represents District 27 in the Texas House of Representatives. He was first elected in 2010. Reynolds is the first African American elected to represent Fort Bend County in the Texas House of Representatives since the Reconstruction era.
Reverend Romulus Moore was an American politician and leader of the early civil rights movement after the American Civil War during the Reconstruction Era in the U.S. state of Georgia. An African American, Moore was elected to the state legislature in 1868. Moore was expelled from the legislature in 1868 along with other African Americans and reinstated in the Georgia General Assembly in 1870 by an Act of Congress. Reverend Moore was active in advocating the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The "Original 33" were the first 33 African-American members of the Georgia General Assembly. They were elected to office in 1868, during the Reconstruction era. They were among the first African-American state legislators in the United States. Twenty-four of the members were ministers. Upon taking office, white Democrats, then a minority in the Assembly, conspired with enough white Republicans to expel the African-American legislators from the Assembly in September 1868. The next year, the Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that African Americans had the right to hold office in Georgia. The expelled legislators were reinstated and took office in January 1870.
The 128th Georgia General Assembly convened its first session on January 13, 1965, at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta. The 128th Georgia General Assembly succeeded the 127th and served as the precedent for the 129th in 1967.
El-Mahdi E. Holly is an American politician from the state of Georgia. A member of the Democratic Party, Holly has served in the Georgia House of Representatives for the 111th and 116th district.