More Than Half of U.S. States Have Never Elected an African-American to Congress

[The Straight Story]

More Than Half of U.S. States Have Never Elected an African-American to Congress

African-Americans have yet to serve in the U.S. House on behalf of 26 states, and the situation is even worse in the U.S. Senate. In the more than 220 years of Congress, only three states have ever elected a black senator.

Those three states are Mississippi (in the 1870s), Illinois (Carol Moseley-Braun in 1992, Barack Obama in 2004), and Massachusetts (Edward Brooke in 1966).

Currently, there are zero blacks in the Senate.

Twenty-four states have elected a total of 120 African-Americans to the House. But the majority of these politicians came from just six states: Illinois (14), California (12), South Carolina (10), New York (9), Georgia (8) and North Carolina (8).

The 26 states that have yet to elect a black U.S. representative are: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming.

http://www.allgov.com/Controversies/ViewNews/More_Than_Half_of_US_States_Have_Never_Elected_an_African_American_to_Congress_110118

[Bettie]

1. Well, in the case of Iowa, there is a valid reason for this

Population here is 93% white. Not saying it is right, but frankly, we just don't have the ethnic population to make it happen.

[IADEMO2004]

2. Then there is the issue of Iowa not electing a woman.

[Bettie]

8. And there are plenty of women here who are qualified

and would be great in office.

In speaking to race, I'd say there is simply the issue of too few minorities to make a run viable.

Women, on the other hand, should be represented and I think it is a shame that there are none representing this state.

I guess it is the 19th century mindset of many of the people here. (I'm not from here, but I live here now).

[customerserviceguy]

3. The same can be said of just about all the other states on the list

Although Massachusetts puzzles me, a bit.

[jaxx]

7. I live in IL, right across the river from Iowa and it's so different here.

Which makes me wonder why. We have rural areas, lots of them. But we also have

<..> the racial distributions were as follows: 65.0% White American, 15.0% African American, 14.9% Latino American, 4.3% Asian American, 0.3% American Indian and Alaska Natives, and 0.1% Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islander American. (2007)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois

Does the Chicago area make such a difference?

[Gaedel]

4. Three reasons

1. Statistics: Many of those states have only one or two representatives reducing the electoral iterations for the law of averages to produce a minority candidate.

2. Pool of candidates: I think that I recall the 1990 census only had 900 total blacks in the North Dakota and 1200 in Montana.

3. Concentration: How many of those states have an identifiable concentration of blacks? From the list, I would identify only Massachusetts, Kentucky, and Arkansas as likely candiadtes to elect a black to the house.

[cali]

5. 12% of the population is African-American

so this isn't that surprising. How many states have elected latinos to Congress? In Vermont, our population is something like 98% white. Hardly surprising that we haven't elected a black to Congress. Hell, Pat Leahy is the only dem Vt has ever elected to the Senate.

[LiberalFighter]

6. Why don't they research how many Governors, Mayors, City Council members have been black?

Or how many have been elected to state-wide offices or as a state legislator? I would think as a percent a lot more have been elected

[cbdo2007]

9. How many African-Americans have run for congress?

This is a stupid article and headline. I'm just sure African-American's are lining up to run for congress in some of these states.