On July 30, 1866, Edward G. Walker and Charles L. Mitchell made history by becoming the first African Americans to sit in the legislature of an American state in the post-Civil War era. Walker, the son of the famous abolitionist David Walker, and Mitchell, who was elected to the Massachusetts Assembly from Boston, both played key roles in reshaping American political life during the Reconstruction period. This milestone represented the significant progress made in civil rights following the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, although African American political participation would face many challenges in the years that followed.
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