The Indiana Black Legislative Caucus is an American

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

organization An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose. The word is derived from ...

composed of

African Americans 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 ...

elected to the

Indiana General Assembly The Indiana General Assembly is the state legislature, or legislative branch, of the state of Indiana. It is a bicameral legislature that consists of a lower house, the Indiana House of Representatives, and an upper house, the Indiana Senate. ...

Role

By drafting and sponsoring legislation to address constituent needs and by examining all bills that affect the minority populace, the Caucus acts as a legislative body on behalf of the minority community. The Caucus presents a minority perspective from the entire state to the Legislature and advocates public policies that promote minority social, cultural and economic progress, statewide. In addition, the Caucus serves as a research study group to generate pertinent data in support of appropriate public policies.

Current membership

List of officers:

History

The first African-American man elected to the Indiana House of Representatives was

James Sidney Hinton James Sidney Hinton (December 25, 1834 – November 6, 1892) was a Civil War veteran and Republican politician, the first African American to hold state office in Indiana and the first African American to serve in the Indiana state legislature. ...

in 1880. A few other African-American members, James Townsend,

Richard Bassett Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stron ...

and Gabriel Jones were elected in the late 19th century (all of whom, like Hinton, were Republicans), and after Jones' retirement in 1897, no African-Americans were elected again to the General Assembly until 1933, when Robert Stanton was elected as the first African-American Democrat in the House in 1933, and African-Americans have been present in the General Assembly ever since. In 1940,

Robert Brokenburr Robert Lee Brokenburr (November 16, 1886 – March 24, 1974) was an attorney, civil rights leader, and state legislator in Indiana. After several election campaigns, Brokenburr ran as a Republican for an Indiana Senate seat in 1940 and became the ...

, a Republican, became the first African-American State Senator. Daisy Riley Lloyd became the first African-American woman in the House in 1965, and

Julia Carson Julia May Carson (née Porter; July 8, 1938 – December 15, 2007) was a member of the United States House of Representatives for from 1997 until her death in 2007 (numbered as the 10th District from 1997 to 2003).

and Katie Hall became the first in the Senate in 1977. In 1979, the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus was established.

Notes

{{African-American politics Indiana General Assembly State Legislative Black Caucuses