Charles Henry Mahoney (May 29, 1886 – January 29, 1966) was an American attorney, politician, and businessman, and the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

appointed as a delegate to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

. Mahoney was also the first African American to serve on the Detroit Planning Commission, the Wayne County Board of Supervisors and the Michigan Labor Council.

Early life

Mahoney was born in

Decatur, Michigan Decatur is a village in Van Buren County, Michigan, United States. The population was 1,819 at the 2010 census. The village is located within Decatur Township. History Decatur Township and the Village of Decatur are named after Stephen Decatu ...

, on May 29, 1886, to Barney, and his wife, Viora Simpson. Mahoney attended grade school in Decatur.'This Week In Black History-Charles H. Mahoney,' Jet (magazine), May 29, 1980, p. 18 He attended

Olivet College Olivet College is a private Christian liberal arts college located in Olivet, Michigan. The college is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. It was founded in 1844 by missionaries from Oberlin College, and it followed Oberlin in becom ...

where he was renowned by professors as giving the best speech in the history of the college. He later received his

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree from

Fisk University Fisk University is a private historically black liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1930, Fisk was the first Africa ...

, before going on to attend law school at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

where he graduated in 1911.

Career

In 1918, Detroit Mayor

James Couzens James J. Couzens (August 26, 1872October 22, 1936) was an American businessman, politician and philanthropist. He served as mayor of Detroit (1919–1922) and U.S. Senator from Michigan (1922–1936). Prior to entering politics he served as vice ...

appointed Mahoney to the Detroit City Planning Commission, the first African American to serve in such a capacity. In 1925, he was hired by the

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...

to be the defense attorney for Dr.

Ossian Sweet Ossian Sweet ( /ˈɒʃən/ ''OSH-ən''; October 30, 1895 – March 20, 1960) was an African-American physician in Detroit, Michigan. He is known for being charged with murder in 1925 after he and his friends used armed self-defense against a h ...

and 10 other defendants who had been accused of murder, eventually serving as an associate attorney to

Clarence Darrow Clarence Seward Darrow (; April 18, 1857 – March 13, 1938) was an American lawyer who became famous in the early 20th century for his involvement in the Leopold and Loeb murder trial and the Scopes "Monkey" Trial. He was a leading member of t ...

who was later hired for the case. The case ended with Sweet's acquittal. In 1928, Mahoney co-founded the Great Lakes Mutual Insurance Company, serving as the first President of the company until his departure in 1957. In 1939, he was appointed to the Michigan Department of Labor and Industry, by the

Governor of Michigan The governor of Michigan is the head of state, head of government, and chief executive of the U.S. state of Michigan. The current governor is Gretchen Whitmer, a member of the Democratic Party, who was inaugurated on January 1, 2019, as the stat ...

Frank Fitzgerald Frank Dwight Fitzgerald (January 27, 1885 – March 16, 1939) was an American politician. He was elected as the 34th and 36th Governor of Michigan and was the only Michigan governor to die in office. Early life Fitzgerald was born in Grand Le ...

. On July 26, 1954, Mahoney was nominated by

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

to serve as part of a

delegation Delegation is the assignment of authority to another person (normally from a manager to a subordinate) to carry out specific activities. It is the process of distributing and entrusting work to another person,Schermerhorn, J., Davidson, P., Poole ...

to the ninth session of

United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...

, under the leadership of

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (July 5, 1902 – February 27, 1985) was an American diplomat and Republican United States senator from Massachusetts in both Senate seats in non-consecutive terms of service and a United States ambassador. He was considered ...

Mahoney was

confirmed In Christian denominations that practice infant baptism, confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant created in baptism. Those being confirmed are known as confirmands. For adults, it is an affirmation of belief. It involves laying on ...

by the

U.S. Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

as part of the nine member delegation on August 7, 1954. In 1955, he helped organize the Public Bank of Detroit, becoming a member of its

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

. Mahoney was a member of the

Republican Party Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party. Republican Party may also refer to: Africa *Republican Party (Liberia) * Republican Part ...

. He twice unsuccessfully campaigned for election to

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

Death

Mahoney died at the

Henry Ford Hospital Henry Ford Hospital (HFH) is an 877-bed tertiary care hospital, education and research complex at the western edge of the New Center area in Detroit, Michigan. The flagship facility for the Henry Ford Health System, it was one of the first hos ...

, in Detroit, Michigan, on January 29, 1966. He was buried at the Evergreen Cemetery in Detroit.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahoney, Charles H. 1886 births 1966 deaths African-American activists 20th-century American politicians 20th-century American lawyers Activists for African-American civil rights African-American people in Michigan politics Michigan Republicans People from Van Buren County, Michigan Olivet College alumni Fisk University alumni University of Michigan Law School alumni Michigan lawyers American criminal defense lawyers African-American diplomats American businesspeople in insurance Burials in Michigan 20th-century African-American lawyers