Sundra Escott-Russell is an American politician who served as an Alabama state legislator in the Alabama House of Representatives and the Alabama Senate. She is the first African American woman to be elected to the Alabama Senate. [1]
Escott-Russell was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives in 1981 and served until 1993, when she was elected to the Alabama Senate, where she served until 2006. [1] [2] As a state senator, she served as chair of the Children, Youth Affairs and Human Resource Committee. [2]
She succeeded Earl Hilliard in the 20th Senate district [3] and was succeeded in the Alabama Senate by Linda Coleman-Madison.
Escott-Russell is a pastor at Israel Missionary Community Church, and her father Wedzell Escott Sr. and her Brother Rev. Michael Escott were also pastors. She graduated from Alabama State University with a Bachelor of Science degree and with a Master of Public Administration from Strayer University. [4]
The Birmingham Public Library has an undated black and white photograph of her. [5]
Barbara Charline Jordan was an American lawyer, educator, and politician. A Democrat, she was the first African American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction, the first Southern African-American woman elected to the United States House of Representatives, and one of the first two African Americans elected to the U.S. House from the former Confederacy since 1901, alongside Andrew Young of Georgia.
Carrie Mae Meek was the United States representative for Florida's 17th congressional district, from 1993 to 2003. Having been elected in the September 1992 primary with no general election opponent, she was the first African American since the Reconstruction era elected to represent Florida in the United States Congress, where she advocated for the poor and for members of minority groups. An educator, legislator, stateswoman and a member of the Democratic Party, she served from 1979 to 1982 in the Florida House of Representatives, from 1982 to 1992 in the Florida Senate, and from 1993 to 2003, as a congresswoman in the United States House of Representatives. She was the founder of the Carrie Meek Foundation.
The Alabama Legislature is the legislative branch of the government of the U.S. state of Alabama. It is a bicameral body composed of the House of Representatives and Senate. It is one of the few state legislatures in which members of both chambers serve four-year terms and in which all are elected in the same cycle. The most recent election was on November 8, 2022. The new legislature assumes office immediately following the certification of the election results by the Alabama Secretary of State which occurs within a few days following the election.
Mark George Ricks was an American Republican politician from Idaho. He served as the 40th lieutenant governor of Idaho from June 2006 to January 2007.
Women have served in the United States House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the United States Congress, since 1917 following the election of Republican Jeannette Rankin from Montana, the first woman in Congress. In total, 378 women have been U.S. representatives and seven more have been non-voting delegates. As of November 12, 2024, there are 127 women in the U.S. House of Representatives, making women 29.2% of the total. Of the 385 women who have served in the House, 253 have been Democrats and 132 have been Republicans. One woman was the 52nd Speaker of the House, Democrat Nancy Pelosi of California.
Avel Louise Gordly is an activist, community organizer, and former politician in the U.S. state of Oregon, who in 1996 became the first African-American woman to be elected to the Oregon State Senate. She served in the Senate from 1997 to 2009. Previously, she served for five years in the Oregon House of Representatives.
Margaret Louise Carter is an American politician who was a Democratic member of the Oregon Legislative Assembly from 1985 to 1999 and 2001 to 2009 and was the first black woman elected to the state's legislature. She served in the Oregon House of Representatives until 1999, and then in the Oregon State Senate from 2001 to 2009. She served as President Pro Tempore of the Senate, Vice Chair for Ways and Means, and as a member of both the Health and Human Services and Oregon State Hospital Patient Care committees. She announced her resignation from the Senate effective August 31, 2009, and took a post as Deputy Director for Human Services Programs at the Oregon Department of Human Services. In 2015, she was reportedly considering a return to the senate.
Laura Vandiver Hall is an American politician who currently serves in the Alabama House of Representatives representing House District 19 as a Democrat. Hall was first elected to the Alabama House of Representatives by special election in August 1993. She was re-elected in 1994 until now. She is a retired educator whose tenure in the education field extended for over forty years.
Kesha Ram Hinsdale is an American activist and politician who is the majority leader-elect of the Vermont Senate. She served in the Vermont House of Representatives from 2009 to 2016, representing the Chittenden 6-4 District, which encompasses the Hill Section of Burlington and the University of Vermont. In her early career, Ram was the youngest member of the House of Representatives and the youngest state legislator in the country. She is the youngest Indian American to ever serve in state elected office.
The National Baptist Convention, USA, incorporated as the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., and more commonly known as the National Baptist Convention, is a Baptist Christian denomination headquartered at the Baptist World Center in Nashville, Tennessee and affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance. It is also one of the largest predominantly and traditionally African American churches in the United States, and was the second largest Baptist denomination in the world in 2016.
P. Kay Floyd is an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who represented the 46th district in the Oklahoma Senate from 2014 to 2024. She served as the Minority Leader of the Oklahoma Senate after succeeding John Sparks in 2018 until she was term limited in 2024. She previously served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives representing the 88th district between 2012 and 2014.
African Americans in Alabama or Black Alabamians are residents of the state of Alabama who are of African American ancestry. They have a history in Alabama from the era of slavery through the Civil War, emancipation, the Reconstruction era, resurgence of white supremacy with the Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow Laws, the Civil Right movement, into recent decades. According to the 2020 Census, approximately 25.8% of Alabama's population is African American.
Gloria Travis Tanner was a politician and public figure in Colorado. A Democrat, she served in the Colorado House of Representatives from 1985-1994. In 1994, she became the first African American woman to serve as a Colorado state senator. In 2000, she founded a leadership and training institute for black women in Colorado. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2002.
Women have served in state legislatures in the United States since 1895. Their ranks have increased with the advent of nationwide women's suffrage after 1920. Although the number of women serving in state legislatures has more than quintupled since 1971, they remain underrepresented. In 2023, women held less than half of the seats in state legislatures across the majority of states. Specifically, seven states —Oklahoma (19.2%), Louisiana (19.4%), Alabama (17.4%), South Carolina (14.8%), Mississippi (14.5%), Tennessee (14.4%), and West Virginia (11.9%)— had legislatures where women occupied less than 20% of the seats.
Dee Dawkins-Haigler is an American politician from the U.S. state of Georgia. A Democrat, she was a member of the Georgia House of Representatives representing the state's 91st district from 2008 until 2017. She has also run twice as a candidate for secretary of state of Georgia. She is a pastor in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Maxcine Young was an American politician.
Pamela D. Stevenson is an American politician, attorney, and retired U.S. Air Force Colonel. She is a Democrat and represents District 43 in the Kentucky State House. In 2023, she unsuccessfully ran as the Democratic nominee in the 2023 Kentucky Attorney General election losing to Republican nominee Russell Coleman.
Abraham Hugo Miller was a businessman, pastor and state legislator in Arkansas. He served in the Arkansas House of Representatives in 1874 and 1875. At the peak of his business operations, he was considered the wealthiest man in Arkansas.