This #BlackHistoryMonth I want to quickly highlight the African American Minnesota State legislators who came before me and paved the way for the work that I am able to do today in the #mnleg

Thread

John Francis Wheaton, a Twin Cities lawyer and the first African American graduate of the @UofMNLawSchool, became the first African American person elected to serve in the Minnesota legislature in 1898.

Representative Wheaton introduced fifteen bills during his one term in office (1899). Chief among them was an amendment to an 1885 civil rights bill that prevented businesses from refusing service to anyone on the basis of race or color.

Wheaton proposed an addition that made the list of pertinent businesses exhaustive. The bill passed both the House and Senate and was signed into law by Governor John Lind on March 6, 1899.

Ray Pleasant was elected to the Bloomington City Council in 1969. He was successful in securing federal grants to preserve park areas in the city. After serving three years on the city council, Pleasant successfully ran for a House seat in his district in 1972.

Representative Pleasent served eight years until 1980. He chaired the House Local and Urban Affairs Committee in 1979.

Robert Lewis landed a spot on the St. Louis Park school board in 1966 and then won a seat in the Minnesota state senate, becoming the first African American to serve in the chamber in 1972 when only about 26 African American resi­dents lived in his suburban city.

Senator Lewis sponsored legislation to help victims of family violence and expanded catastrophic health insurance.

During the 1979 session, he served as finance chairman of a health and welfare subcommittee - becoming an abortion-rights advocate in the process.

Randy Staten came to Minnesota on a football scholarship to play for the Gophers. He played 2 years in the NFL for the New York Giants.

After returning to MN to work for Cargill, Staten got involved in local civil rights causes, eventually winning a seat in the House in 1980.

Staten led the fight to divest the state’s funds in South Africa. Staten also spearheaded passage of the African American Heritage Act, which required child protection agencies seeking to place Black children for adoption and foster care with relatives or other Black families.

Richard Jefferson was a Chemist for the U.S. Bureau of Mines before he was elected to the MN House in 1986. Jefferson was a key negotiator on several Minneapolis public facilities financing deals including the 1994 Target Center buyout.

Gregory Gray was elected to the Minnesota House in 1998. He was an attorney and Director of Member Services for the Minnesota State Bar Association. Seeking to be the first African American elected statewide in MN, he made an unsuccessful bid for Minnesota State Auditor in 2002.

Neva Walker, a community organizer from South Minneapolis became the first African American woman to serve in the legislature, getting elected to serve in the House in 2000. On May 16th 2008 she became the first African American woman to gavel the House into Session.

@keithellison was a civil rights, employment, and criminal defense lawyer, ED of the nonprofit Legal Rights Center, and was also the host of a public affairs program on @899KMOJ. He was first elected to the MN House in 2002. He went on to serve CD5 in Congress and is now MN AG.

@SenChampionMN59 was first elected to the Minnesota House in 2008. Formerly working under MN Attorney General Skip Humphrey and Mike Hatch, Champion was also the co-founder and director of the 2003 Grammy nominated Excelsior Choir. He was later elected to the MN senate in 2012.

@jeffreyhayden previously worked as a policy aide to Minneapolis City Councilman Gary Schiff and did nonprofit work before he was first elected to the MN House in 2008 and senate in 2011 eventually serving as assistant senate minority leader.

@renamoran became the second African American woman to serve in the #mnleg and one of the first African American legislators from Saint Paul when she was first elected in 2010. Moran now chairs the powerful Ways and Means committee in the MN House.

John Harrington was the former chief of police for Saint Paul prior to being elected to the state senate in 2010. He now currently serves as the Commissioner of the @MnDPS_DPS.

@ErinMayeQuade was elected in 2016. She championed issues like paid family leave; expanding access to affordable child care; ending childhood hunger; LGBTQ rights; reproductive rights, and eliminating gun violence.

@RuthForHouse was elected in 2018. Richardson was previously the director of programs and national strategic initiatives for the Minnesota Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. She currently serves as the Chair of the House Education policy committee.

This list may be short, but I wouldn’t be in this position today if it weren’t for the courage and service of these African American Minnesota legislators who came before me.

We have the most diverse legislature in MN history currently but there’s still plenty of room to grow.