African Americans are a demographic minority in the United States. African-Americans' initial achievements in various fields historically establish a foothold, providing a precedent for more widespread cultural change. The shorthand phrase for this is "breaking the color barrier."

In addition to major national- and international-level firsts, African-Americans have achieved firsts on a statewide basis.

List of African-American U.S. state firsts

19th century

1832

First governor of African descent in what is now the US: Pío Pico, an Afro-Mexican, was the last governor of Alta California before it was ceded to the US. Like all Californios, Pico automatically became a US citizen in 1848. He was elected to the Los Angeles Common Council in 1853, but he did not assume office.

List of African-American U.S. state firsts

1868

First elected African-American lieutenant governor: Oscar Dunn, Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana First 33 African-American legislators in Georgia: see Original 33

List of African-American U.S. state firsts

1870

May: First African-American acting governor: Oscar James Dunn of Louisiana from May until August 9, 1871, when sitting Governor Warmoth was incapacitated and chose to recuperate in Mississippi. (see also: Douglas Wilder, 1990)

1872

First African-American governor of Louisiana: P. B. S. Pinchback (Also first in U.S.) (non-elected; see also Douglas Wilder, 1990)

1873

First African-American Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives, and of any state legislature: John R. Lynch First African American elected to the Tennessee General Assembly: Sampson W. Keeble

1876

First African American elected to the Illinois General Assembly: John W. E. Thomas

1879

First African American elected to the Wyoming Legislature: William Jefferson Hardin

1880

First African American elected to the Indiana General Assembly: James Sidney Hinton

1885

First African American elected to the Rhode Island General Assembly: Mahlon Van Horne

1889

First African-American female principal in Massachusetts and the Northeast: Maria Louise Baldwin, supervising white faculty and a predominantly white student body at the Agassiz Grammar School in Cambridge (renamed the Maria L. Baldwin School in 2004).

1893

First African-American member elected to the Michigan House of Representatives: William Webb Ferguson

1898

First African-American member elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives: John Francis Wheaton

20th century

1917

First African American to enter the University of Oregon: Mabel Byrd

1918

First African-American elected to political office in California: Frederick Madison Roberts, California State Assembly

1920

First African-American elected to the Missouri legislature: Walthall Moore

1924

First African-American elected to the Illinois Senate: Adelbert Roberts

1930

First African Americans elected as judges in the state of New York: James S. Watson and Charles E. Toney

1938

First African-American woman to be elected to the Pennsylvania General Assembly and to any state legislature: Crystal Bird Fauset

1939

First African-American woman to own a cosmetology school in Iowa: Pauline Brown Humphrey

1948

First African American elected to the Delaware House of Representatives: William J. Winchester

1950

First African-American woman to be elected to the West Virginia Legislature: Elizabeth Simpson Drewry First African-American woman to be elected to the Michigan Legislature: Charline White

1952

First African American to graduate from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences: Edith Irby Jones

1955

First African-American woman elected to the New York State Legislature: Bessie A. Buchanan First African-American elected to the Maryland State Senate: Harry A. Cole

1956

First African-American student to attend the University of Alabama: Autherine Lucy Her expulsion from the institution later that year led to the university's President Oliver Carmichael's resignation. First African American to teach at college or university level in California: Betty Smith Williams.

1957

First African-American woman elected to the New Jersey Legislature: Madaline A. Williams

1958

First African-American women elected to the Maryland General Assembly: Verda F. Welcome and Irma George Dixon First African-American woman elected to the Illinois General Assembly: Floy Clements First African American to graduate from the University of Maryland: Elaine J. Coates

1959

First African American to graduate from the University of Maryland: Elaine J. Coates