Roll Call: Black Members of Congress
Barack Obama
Barack Obama was the 44th President of the United States from 2009 to 2017. Obama was the first African American President of the United States. Obama was a U.S. Senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004. Before Congress,...
Donna F. Edwards
Congresswoman Donna Edwards represented Maryland's 4th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2008 to 2017. (110th-114th Congresses). She was the first African American woman to represent Maryland. Before serving in Congress, Edwards was the...
André Carson
Congressman André Carson has represented Indiana's 7th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2008 (110th Congress-Present). Before taking office, Carson served on the Indianapolis City-County Council and worked full-time in law enforcement....
Hank Johnson
Congressman Hank Johnson has represented Georgia's 4th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2007 (110th Congress-Present). Johnson is a member of the Judiciary Committee. His Judiciary subcommittee assignments include Courts, Intellectual...
Yvette Diane Clarke
Congresswoman Yvette Clarke has represented New York in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2007 (109th Congress-Present). Before her election to the U.S. House of Representatives, Clarke was a New York City Council member. She was first elected to city service in...
Laura Richardson
Congresswoman Laura Richardson represented California's 37th Congressional District California in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2007 to 2013 (110th-112th Congresses). Richardson set a record of distinction in having served all three levels of...
Keith Ellison
Congressman Keith Ellison represented Minnesota's 5th Congressional District from 2007 to 2019 (110th-115th Congresses). Before Congress, Ellison was a lawyer and served as executive director of the Legal Rights Center in Minneapolis. Ellison served on the Financial...
Marcia L. Fudge
Congresswoman Marica Fudge represented Ohio's 11th District Congressional District from 2008 to 2021 (110th-116th Congresses). She was elected to the seat in a special election to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones. Before her...
Allen West
Congressman Allen West represented Florida's 22nd Congressional District from 2011 to 2013 (112th Congress). West, a Republican politician and retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, declared himself a defender of conservative values. He served on the House Armed...
Alma Adams
Congresswoman Alma Adams has represented the 12th Congressional District of North Carolina since 2014 (113th Congress-Present). After winning a special election, Adams was sworn in as the 100th woman elected to the 113th Congress. Adams currently serves on the...
William Ballard Hurd
Congressman William Hurd represented Texas' 23rd Congressional District from 2015 to 2021 (114th-116th Congresses). Between 2019 and 2021, Hurd was the only African American Republican in the House of Representatives. In Congress, Hurd served on the House Permanent...
Lisa Blunt Rochester
Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester has represented Delaware in Congress since 2017 (115th Congress-Present). She currently serves as an assistant whip for House leadership. Rochester sits on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, where she is the only former...
Valdez (Val) Demings
Congresswoman Val Demings represented Florida's 10th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2017 to 2023 (115th-117th Congresses). Demings served on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (Subcommittee on Intelligence...
Kamala Devi Harris
Kamala Harris represented California in the U.S. Senate from 2017 until January 18, 2021 (115th-117th Congresses) when she resigned to become Vice President of the United States during the Biden Administration. Before serving in Congress, Harris was California's...
Brenda Jones
Congresswoman Brenda Jones represented Michigan's 13th Congressional the U.S. House of Representatives during a portion of the 115th Congress. On November 6, 2018, Jones won a special election to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of longtime-Representative...
Alfred Lawson, Jr.
Congressman Alfred Lawson represented Florida's 5th Congressional District from 2017 through 2023 (115th-117th Congresses). Lawson served on the House Committee on Financial Services and the House Committee on Agriculture. Before Congress, Lawson served for 28 years...
Aston Donald McEachin
Congressman Donald McEachin represented Virginia's 4th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2017 until his death on November 28, 2022 (115th-117th Congresses). During his first term in Congress, McEachin co-founded the United for Climate...
Brenda L. Lawrence
Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence represented Michigan's 14th Congressional District from 2015 to 2023 (114th-117th Congresses). Lawrence served as the vice-chair of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. She also served on the Subcommittee on Labor, Health, and...
Dwight Evans
Congressman Dwight Evans has represented Pennsylvania's 3rd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2016 (114th Congress-Present) when he was elected to both the 114th and 115th Congresses in a special election. In Congress, Evans serves on...
Terri Sewell
Congresswoman Terri Sewell has represented the 7th District of Alabama in the U.S. House of Representatives since January 3, 2011 (112th Congress-Present). She is one of the first women elected to Congress from Alabama and is the first Black woman to ever serve in the...