ON NOVEMBER 6, 1866, just one year after the end of the Civil War, Massachusetts voters elected the first Black members of the Massachusetts General Court: EDWARD GARRISON WALKER, a lawyer from Charlestown, and CHARLES LEWIS MITCHELL, a printer in Boston’s Beacon Hill and Back Bay. In the early years of the reconstruction era, Walker and Mitchell worked to turn their communities interests and needs into legislation, policy and law.

WALKER AND MITCHELL WERE ALSO THE FIRST BLACK ELECTED LEGISLATORS IN THE UNITED STATES.

Black leaders belong in the political arena and our name seeks to remind us of how far we’ve come as we seek to build the next generation of Black political leadership across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
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