Black Political Power in Louisiana, 1868 – Present
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In 1868, Louisiana had three Black lieutenant governors, a Black state treasurer, and more than 123 Black state legislators. By 1877, every one of them had been removed from office through violence, fraud, and legal suppression. Not a single Black person would hold elected office in Louisiana again for nearly a century.
Reconstruction · 1868–1877
Oscar James Dunn
Lieutenant Governor, 1868–1871
Antoine Dubuclet
State Treasurer, 1868–1878
Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback
Lt. Governor · Acting Governor, 1871–1873
Caesar Carpetier Antoine
Lieutenant Governor, 1873–1877
Pierre Gustave Deslonde
Secretary of State, 1872–1876
Charles E. Nash
U.S. Representative, 1875–1877
Thomas B. Stamps
State Senator, Jefferson Parish
Curtis Pollard
State Senator, Madison Parish
David Young
State Senator, Concordia Parish
Robert H. Isabelle
State Representative, Orleans Parish
George Y. Kelso
State Senator, Rapides Parish
William G. Brown
State Representative, Rapides Parish
and 111 more legislators
The Silence · 1877–1968
1877
1880
1885
1890
1895
1900
No names. No representatives. No senators. No voice in government. For nearly a century, silence.
1905
1910
1915
1920
1925
1930
1935
1940
1945
1950
1955
1960
1965
Restoration · 1968–Present
1968
Ernest Nathan Morial
State Representative · First since Reconstruction
1971
Dorothy Mae Taylor
State Representative · First Black woman
1976
Sidney Barthelemy
State Senator · First since Reconstruction
1991
William Jennings Jefferson
U.S. Representative · First LA Black congressman since 1877
Diana Bajoie
State Senator · First Black woman in LA Senate
2005
Sharon Weston Broome
State Senator · Later Mayor-President, EBR Parish
2011
Cedric Richmond
U.S. Representative · CBC Chair 2017–2019
2021
Troy Carter
U.S. Representative, 2nd District
2026
123
Legislators Elected 1868–1877
91
Years of Silence
0
Black Officials 1877–1968
The silence is not ancient history. It is the world your grandparents were born into.
Help us document what remains. Every church, school, lodge hall, and cemetery that Black communities built during the silence is a monument to persistence without representation.
The Ancestral Pathway
Take This Further
The history preserved here is not a museum exhibit. It is a living record with direct implications for how we understand civic participation, community power, and the work that remains.
Course
Black History Every Month
A 90-minute course that reframes Black American history as a year-round practice, not a February obligation. The Political Leadership Overlay data is woven throughout.
Your family's history is connected to laws, policies, and legal systems that shaped where they lived, how they worked, and what they were allowed to own. This self-paced course bridges genealogy and advocacy.
Understanding who held power where your ancestors lived is itself an act of advocacy. From Reconstruction to redistricting, from the Voting Rights Act to your next local election.
Every church, school, lodge hall, and cemetery that Black communities built during the silence is a monument to persistence without representation. Help us document what remains.
The Ancestral Pathway