On this day in 1968, several Black people were elected (or re-elected), to the U.S. House of Representatives. Shirley Anita Chisholm became the first Black Woman ever elected to Congress from Brooklyn, NY. Her first-time elected colleagues included Louis Stokes of Ohio and William Clay of Missouri. The following were re-elected to the U.S. House: William Dawson of Illinois, John Conyers and Charles Diggs from Michigan; Augustus Hawkins from California; and Robert Nix from Pennsylvania.
Walter Washington was elected on this day in 1974 as the first home-rule mayor of Washington, DC. He had been the appointed Chief Executive of the city from 1967 until 1974 when the city was granted some measure of democracy and independence of the federal government to popularly elect its own leader.
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