Arthur Wergs Mitchell, born on December 22, 1883, near Lafayette, Alabama, was the first African American elected to the U.S. Congress as a Democrat. His election in 1934 marked a significant shift in African American political alignment during the New Deal era.?Blackfacts.com

Born to former slaves Taylor Mitchell and Ammar Patterson, Mitchell attended public schools before enrolling at Tuskegee Institute in 1897. He worked his way through college as a laborer and as an assistant to Booker T. Washington. After his education, Mitchell taught in rural schools in Georgia and Alabama and founded the Armstrong Agricultural School in West Butler, Alabama, serving as its president for ten years. ?TheHub.news

Mitchell later attended both Columbia University and Harvard University. In 1927, he was admitted to the bar in Washington, D.C., and practiced law there before moving to Chicago in 1929, where he continued his legal career and became involved in real estate. ?BlackPast.org

Initially a Republican, Mitchell switched to the Democratic Party in 1932, aligning himself with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal policies. In the 1934 election, he defeated incumbent Republican Oscar De Priest to represent Illinois’s 1st Congressional District, becoming the first African American Democrat in Congress. During his four terms from 1935 to 1943, Mitchell was the only African American in Congress. ?pbswest.org

While in office, Mitchell introduced legislation to combat lynching and racial discrimination. Notably, he filed a lawsuit against the Illinois Central and Rock Island Railroads after being forced into a segregated train car in Arkansas. The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that the railroad had violated the Interstate Commerce Act. ?House History & Archives

Mitchell chose not to seek re-election in 1942. After retiring from Congress, he moved to Petersburg, Virginia, where he devoted himself to farming, lecturing, and practicing law until his death on May 9, 1968.