Should Black Americans Come Back Home To The GOP?

A Timeline of the History of African Americans and the Republican Party

1862: President Abraham Lincoln is the first President to meet with a group of black leaders

1864: The Republican National Convention makes the abolition of slavery a plank in its platform

1868: Oscar J. Dunn becomes Lieutenant Governor in Louisiana

P.B.S Pinchback and James J. Harris become the first African-American delegates to the Republican National Convention held in Chicago

1869: Joseph H. Rainey, South Carolina, becomes the first African-American Congressman

1870: Hiram R. Revels is elected to fill U.S. Senate seat formerly held by Jefferson Davis

Alonzo J. Ransier is elected Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina before being elected to the U.S. Congress in 1872

1871: Robert B. Elliot chairs South Carolina delegation to the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia

1872: John R. Lynch is elected Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives; he was later elected to U.S. Congress in 1973

1875: Blanche K. Bruce of Mississippi becomes the first African-American elected to a full-term in U.S. Senate

1884: John R. Lynch is the first African-American to preside over the Republican National Convention; gives the keynote address

1901: President Theodore Roosevelt invites Booker T. Washington to dinner at the White House

1920: The Republican National Convention declares that African-Americans must be admitted to all state and district conventions

1954: President Dwight Eisenhower appoints J. Ernest Wilkins as Assistant Secretary of Labor

1960: Jackie Robinson, the first black Major League Baseball player, endorses Nixon for President

1966: Edward W. Brooke (R-MA) is the first African-American elected to U.S. Senate by popular vote

1968: Arthur A Fletcher is appointed Assistant Secretary of Labor; Fletcher later became candidate for Chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1976 and appointed Chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in 1990

1975: President Gerald Ford appoints William T. Coleman Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation

James B. Parsons is named Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court in Chicago, the first African-American to hold this position

1980: NAACP President Benjamin Hooks is invited to address the Republican National Convention

1981: President Ronald Reagan appoints Clarence Pendleton, Jr., as Chairman of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission

1982: President Reagan appoints Clarence Thomas as Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

1989: President George H.W. Bush appoints Louis Sullivan as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

President Bush appoints General Colin L. Powell as Chair of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. Powell became the 12th and, at age 52, the youngest-ever chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and the first black person ever to reach that rank

President Bush appoints Condoleezza Rice as Director, and later Senior Director, of Soviet and East European Affairs in the National Security Council, and a Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs

1990: Gary Franks is elected to U.S. Congress (CT)

1991: President Bush appoints Clarence Thomas to U.S. Supreme Court

1994: J. Kenneth Blackwell becomes the first African American elected to a statewide Executive office in Ohio when he was elected Treasurer of State

1998: U.S. House of Representatives elects J.C. Watts (R-OK) Chairman of the House Republican Conference

2001: President George W. Bush appoints:

Condoleezza Rice, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (National Security Advisor)
Colin L. Powell, Secretary of State
Roderick R. Paige, U.S. Secretary of Education
Alphonso Jackson, Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Claude Allen, Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Leo S. Mackay, Jr., Deputy Secretary, Veterans Affairs
Larry D. Thompson, Deputy Attorney General; U.S. Department of Justice
Stephen A. Perry, Administrator, General Services Administration
President George W. Bush signs a bill to form the Presidential Commission to create the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

2002: For the first time in history, Black Republicans hold the Lieutenant Governor position in two states. Michael Steele is inaugurated as the first African American Lieutenant Governor to serve the State of Maryland and the first African American elected to a statewide office in Maryland. Jennette Bradley is inaugurated Lieutenant Governor of Ohio.

Six African Americans were elected to state-wide offices

2003: J.C. Watts becomes Chairman of GOPAC

President Bush nominates Alphonso Jackson to become the 13th Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development