Arthur W. Mitchell

Who was Arthur W. Mitchell?

Arthur Wergs Mitchell was a U.S. Representative from Illinois. Mitchell was the first African American to be elected to the United States Congress as a Democrat.

Mitchell was born near Lafayette, Alabama. He left home at 14 to go to the Tuskegee Institute. He worked on a farm and as an office boy to Booker T. Washington while attending the Institute. Mitchell attended Columbia University briefly and qualified for the bar. He then moved to Chicago, Illinois and began to work for the Republican Party. Mitchell switched from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party in 1932 after finding that his views on issues aligned himself closer to the Democrats. He was a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity and served as its 6th International President from 1926-1934.

Mitchell was elected to the House of Representatives in 1934, defeating African American congressman Oscar De Priest. Mitchell introduced bills banning lynching and against discrimination. He filed a lawsuit against the Illinois Central and Rock Island Railroads after he was forced into a segregated train car just before it passed into Arkansas. Mitchell's suit was advanced to the U.S.