All rights reserved. 1  Huguenots: Wars of Religion and the Edict of Nantes-Wars of Religion and the Edict of Nantes The conspiracy of Amboise (1560; see Amboise, conspiracy ...
Wentworth Cheswell is said to be the first African-American to be elected to office in America. He was one quarter Black and three quarters White. He was elected as town constable of Newmarket, New Hampshire, in 1768 and served in some government position thereafter until his death â well, to be precise, every year but one.
Patricia Roberts Harris (1924-1985) became the first African American woman in the Cabinet when President Jimmy Carter appointed her secretary of housing and urban development in 1977. Born on May 31, 1924, in Mattoon, Illinois, to working class parents, Patricia Roberts Harris exemplified a true American success story. Educated in the Chicago public schools, Harris attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated summa cum laude in 1945.