Trailblazers: African American Political Firsts

This release by the artist Wishum Gregory features President Barack Obama and the First Lady Michelle Obama and a variety of African-American politicians that paved the way for President Barack Obama’s historic achievement of becoming the first African-American President of the United States of America.

Included in the posters are the following black politicians, history makers and icons: Attorney General Eric Holder (First Black Attorney General), Virginia Governor Douglas Wilder (First Black Governor since Reconstruction), United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young (First Black Ambassador to the United Nations), HUD Secretary Patricia Harris (First Black Woman to hold a Cabinet Position), Mississippi Senator Hiram Revels (First Black Senator), New York Congresswoman Shirley Chisolm (First Black Congresswoman), South Carolina Congressman Joseph Raine (First Black Congressman), Secretary of State Condelezza Rice (First Black Woman to serve as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State) , HUD Secretary Robert Weaver (First Black Person to hold a Cabinet Position), Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (First Black Supreme Court Justice), Cleveland Mayor Carl Stokes (First Black Mayor of a Major American City), Washington D.C. Mayor Sharon Pratt Dixon Kelly (First Black Woman to serve as a Mayor of a Major American City), Dr. Ralph J. Bunche (First Black to win the Nobel Prize and First Black desk officer at the State Department),General Colin Powell (First Black Four Star General, First Black Secretary of State, and the First Black to Chair the Joint Chiefs of Staff), Edward William Brooke III (First Black Man Popularly Elected to the Senate), Carol Moseley Braun (First Black Woman elected to the United States Senate), and Susan Rice (First Black woman to represent the United States at the United Nations).

This art print is a powerful historical poster for any person of African descent or other minority that aspires to be a politician and should hang in the office of every sitting African-American politician as a tribute to those that paved the way.