Charles Z. Smith (1927-2016)

Charles Z. Smith (1927-2016)

On July 18, 1988, Charles Z. Smith became the first African American to serve on the Washington Supreme Court.  He was appointed to the court by Washington’s then Governor Booth Gardner and was subsequently elected to his position on the court for a two-year term in...
Dennis Archer (1942- )

Dennis Archer (1942- )

Although he has served as a public school teacher, attorney, and Michigan State Supreme Court Justice, Dennis Archer is best know as the Mayor of Detroit and the first African American to become president of the American Bar Association. Born on January 1, 1942 in...
Jesse Franklin (1817-1882)

Jesse Franklin (1817-1882)

Jesse Franklin was an influential African Creek politician and minister who lived in the Creek Agency settlement in the years after the Civil War. Franklin was born about 1817 as a slave in the Creek Nation in Alabama. He emigrated to the Indian Territory in the 1830s...