John Clifford Hawkins was a lawyer and politician in New York City during the early 20th century. [1] He served in the New York Assembly and represented Harlem as a New York City alderman.
Hawkins was born in Middleburg, North Carolina, on March 29, 1879, the son of John and Sara Hawkins. In 1903, he graduated from Lincoln University. He studied law at New York University School of Law. [1]
He was a member of the New York State Assembly (New York Co., 21st D.) in 1919, 1920 and 1921. He was the second African-American New York assemblyman after Edward A. Johnson in 1918. [1]
In 1927, he was elected an Alderman of the City of New York, representing the 21st District. [1] He was one of two African Americans serving as aldermen in 1929 and was reportedly offered the minority leadership post but turned it down. [2]
Augustus Freeman Hawkins was an American politician of the Democratic Party who served in the California State Assembly from 1935 to 1963 and the U.S. House Of Representatives from 1963 to 1991. Over the course of his career, Hawkins authored more than 300 state and federal laws, the most famous of which are Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 1978 Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act. He was known as the "silent warrior" for his commitment to education and ending unemployment.
John Hope, born in Augusta, Georgia, was an American educator and political activist, the first African-descended president of both Morehouse College in 1906 and of Atlanta University in 1929, where he worked to develop graduate programs. Both are historically Black colleges.
Frederick Madison Roberts was an American newspaper owner and editor, educator and business owner; he became a politician, the first known man of African American descent elected to the California State Assembly. He served there for 16 years and became known as "dean of the assembly." He has been honored as the first person of African-American descent to be elected to public office among the states on the West Coast.
Percy Ellis Sutton was an American political and business leader. An activist in the Civil Rights Movement and lawyer, he was also a Freedom Rider and the legal representative for Malcolm X. He was the highest-ranking African-American elected official in New York City when he was Manhattan borough president from 1966 to 1977, the longest tenure at that position. He later became an entrepreneur whose investments included the New York Amsterdam News and the Apollo Theater in Harlem.
Joseph Andrew Gavagan was an American World War I veteran, lawyer, and politician who served seven terms as a United States representative from New York from 1929 to 1943.
Andrew Stuart was a lawyer and political figure in Lower Canada.
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced racial segregation, "Jim Crow" being a pejorative term for an African American. The last of the Jim Crow laws were generally overturned in 1965. Formal and informal racial segregation policies were present in other areas of the United States as well, even as several states outside the South had banned discrimination in public accommodations and voting. Southern laws were enacted by white-dominated state legislatures (Redeemers) to disenfranchise and remove political and economic gains made by African Americans during the Reconstruction era. Such continuing racial segregation was also supported by the successful Lily-white movement.
William F. Quick, Sr., was an American machinist, lawyer, and Socialist politician in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was the Socialist Party nominee for Governor of Wisconsin in 1924 and served one term (1923–1926) in the Wisconsin State Senate, representing the Milwaukee-based 7th District. After leaving the senate, he served as a civil court judge and city attorney in Milwaukee.
Eldridge Hawkins is an American lawyer and Democratic Party politician who served in the New Jersey General Assembly from 1972 to 1978. During that time he served as the Chairman of the Assembly's Judiciary, Law, Public Safety and Defense Committee. In that capacity he authored The NJ Legislature's NJ Code of Criminal Justice known as Title 2C. During his tenure he also sponsored NJ's Affirmative Action Law.
William Francis Yardley was an American attorney, politician and civil rights advocate, operating primarily out of Knoxville, Tennessee, in the late 19th century. He was Tennessee's first African-American gubernatorial candidate, and is believed to have been the first African-American attorney to argue a case before the Tennessee Supreme Court. He published a newspaper, the Examiner, that promoted African-American rights, and was an advocate for labor and the poor both as an attorney and as a politician.
Steven W. Hawkins is an American social justice leader and litigator who currently serves as president and CEO of the US Cannabis Council. He previously served as executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project and as executive director of Amnesty International USA. Prior to these roles, he served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Program Officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He also held position as executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, as senior program manager at Justice, Equality, Human Dignity and Tolerance Foundation, and as program executive at Atlantic Philanthropies and as an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Hawkins is known for bringing litigation that led to the release of three teenagers wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death row in Tennessee.
Louis Andrew Cuvillier was an American lawyer and politician from New York.
John Sinclair Leary was an American lawyer, politician, federal official, and law school dean. He was of mixed ethnicity. He is described as one of the first black lawyers in North Carolina and was a member of the state legislature from 1868 to 1870. He was an alderman in Fayetteville and later held federal government appointments. He was the first dean of the law school at Shaw University in 1890.
Clement Garnett Morgan (1859-1929) was an American attorney, civil rights activist, and city official of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Born into slavery in Virginia and freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, he trained as a barber before moving to Massachusetts to pursue his education. He was the first African American to earn degrees from both Harvard University and its law school; the first African American to deliver Harvard's senior class oration; and the first black alderman in New England. As an attorney he handled many civil rights cases, in one instance closing down a segregated school. He was a founding member of the Niagara Movement and of the Boston branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Martin F. Tanahey was an American politician who was the alderman of New York City's 1st district from 1922 to his death in 1930. A Democrat, he served much of the Lower East Side and Financial District in Manhattan.
Joseph Edwin Kinsley was an American lawyer and politician from New York.
John P. Nugent was an American labor organizer and politician from New York.
Edward J. Walsh was an American lawyer, politician, and magistrate from New York.
Pope Barrow Billups was an American lawyer and politician. He represented the 21st district in the New York State Assembly.
Stephen Stacpoole Blake was an Irish-American lawyer, politician, and judge.