List of African-American United States Representatives

The United States House of Representatives has had 139 elected African-American members, of which 133 have been Representatives from U.S. states and 6 have been Delegates from U.S. territories and the District of Columbia. The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral United States Congress, which is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. The US Census Bureau defines African Americans as citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa. The term is generally used for Americans with at least partial ancestry in any of the original peoples of sub-Saharan Africa. During the founding of the federal government, African Americans were consigned to a status of second-class citizenship or enslaved. No African American served in federal elective office before the ratification in 1870 of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Fifteenth Amendment prohibits the federal and state governments from denying any citizen the right to vote because of that citizen's race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Only 27 out of all 50 states have sent an African-American representative to the U.S. House (excluding the U.S. Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia). Joseph Rainey was the first African-American representative to be seated in the U.S. House. He served South Carolina's 1st congressional district beginning in 1870 during the Reconstruction Era following the American Civil War. Out of all 132 elected or appointed African-American members, 34 have been women. Fifteen states have sent African-American women to the U.S. House, the first being Shirley Chisholm from New York's 12th congressional district in 1969 during the Civil Rights Movement. The current 114th Congress has a record 46 African-American Representatives or Delegates, including 20 African-American women. Many African-American members of the House of Representatives serve majority-minority districts. These congressional districts are gerrymandered, limit serious challenges to their re-election, and limit their abilities to represent a larger, more diverse constituency.

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