Arthur Wergs Mitchell

Arthur Wergs Mitchell Sr. (December 22, 1883 – May 9, 1968) was an American politician and civil rights activist from Illinois. He represented Illinois's 1st congressional district for his entire tenure in the United States House of Representatives, from 1935 to 1943, during which time he was the only African American in Congress. A supporter of the New Deal, Mitchell was the first African American to be elected to the Congress as a Democrat.Mitchell, Arthur Wergs. US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives. Retrieved January 29, 2022.

Early life Mitchell was born to Taylor Mitchell and Emma (Patterson) in Lafayette, Alabama. He left home at 14 to attend 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 as he was “ambitious and impatient with the entrenched black Republican leadership, [seeking] a chance for personal advancement in the concurrent rise of the national Democratic party."Weiss, Farewell to the Party of Lincoln: 78. He was a member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity and served as its sixth International President, from 1926 to 1934.

Political career Mitchell was elected to the House of Representatives in 1934, defeating African American congressman Oscar De Priest, who was a Republican. During the election campaign, Mitchell emphasized his support for the New Deal and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's public relief programs, in addition to criticizing De Priest's opposition to segregation as ineffective.De Priest, Oscar Stanton. US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives. Retrieved January 29, 2022. After Mitchell won the election with 53% of the vote, De Priest told him "I congratulate you as [the] first Negro Democratic congressman."

In Congress, 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. Supreme Court as case Mitchell v. United States,313 U.S. 80 (1941) which ruled that the railroad violated the Interstate Commerce Act. He voluntarily chose not to seek re-election in 1942. As his last congressional act, Mitchell condemned politicians as preferring the Axis powers over giving Negros any rights, comparing the atrocities of the Nazis and Japanese with lynchings such as those that had recently occurred in Shubuta, Mississippi.

Despite having been elected to Congress in part on campaigning against De Priest's civil rights record as weak, Mitchell himself faced accusations by civil rights advocates of making insufficient efforts. In one instance, the NAACP deemed his introduced anti-lynching bill as too lenient.

After Congress He moved to Virginia and became a farmer, working of property. He died at his home in Petersburg, Virginia, on May 9, 1968.

Electoral history

Arthur Wergs Mitchell

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