POLITICAL AND SOCIAL GAINS- AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY

Despite obstacles, African Americans made political gains. By organizing at the state and local level, African Americans were able to increase black political representation. By 1968 nine African Americans, including the first black woman, Shirley Chisholm, had been elected to Congress, the largest number since 1875. Twelve were elected in 1970, and the following year they formed the Congressional Black Caucus for a stronger voice in federal affairs.

Coalitions of blacks, Hispanics, and whites in the Democratic Party brought an impressive number of African Americans to office in many major cities. In 1970 Kenneth Gibson was elected mayor of Newark; in 1973 Thomas Bradley was elected in Los Angeles, Maynard Jackson was elected in Atlanta, and Coleman Young was elected in Detroit. In 1983 Harold Washington was sworn in as the first black mayor of Chicago, and black victories continued in major and minor cities and in statewide elections in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.

Meanwhile, the number of blacks in Congress also grew. By 1994 the membership of the Congressional Black Caucus stood at 40, including Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois, the first black woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate. In 1989 General Colin Powell became the first African American chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and L. Douglas Wilder was elected governor of Virginia, the first elected black governor in American history. Powell later became the first black secretary of state in 2001 and was succeeded by another black, Condoleezza Rice. In 2004 African American Barack Obama of Illinois was elected to the U.S. Senate, and in 2006 Massachusetts elected its first black governor, Deval Patrick. The same year Minnesota voters sent the first black Muslim, Keith Ellison, to the U.S. House of Representatives.

One of the most hopeful signs of racial progress during the decade was civil rights leader Jesse Jackson's run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988. Jackson was the first black man to mount a serious campaign for a major party's presidential nomination. He won Virginia's Democratic primary and 6.6 million primary votes nationally. Jackson did not win the nomination, but he amassed 1,200 delegates at the Democratic convention and was recognized as a major power in the party.

In 1983 Vanessa Williams became the first African American to win the Miss America Contest, and The Color Purple (1982) by black author Alice Walker won the Pulitzer Prize for literature. In 1993 Toni Morrison became the first African American to win the Nobel Prize for literature. Such black performers and sports stars as Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan, and Bill Cosby became national icons.