Indiana Black Legislative Caucus

The Indiana Black Legislative Caucus is an American political organization composed of African Americans elected to the Indiana General Assembly.

Role

By drafting and sponsoring legislation to address constituent needs and by examining all bills that affect the minority populace, the Caucus acts as a legislative body on behalf of the minority community. The Caucus presents a minority perspective from the entire state to the Legislature and advocates public policies that promote minority social, cultural and economic progress, statewide. In addition, the Caucus serves as a research study group to generate pertinent data in support of appropriate public policies.

Current membership

List of officers:

District	Officers	Position
2 (Senate)	Lonnie Randolph	Chairman
95 (House)	John L. Bartlett	Vice-Chairman
33 (Senate)	Greg Taylor	Treasurer
98 (House)	Robin Shackleford	Chaplain
34 (Senate)	Jean Breaux
3 (House)	Charlie Brown
2 (House)	Earl Harris
96 (House)	Greg Porter
94 (House)	Cherrish Pryor
12 (House)	Mara Candelaria Reardon
3 (Senate)	Earline Rogers
14 (House)	Vernon Smith
99 (House)	Vanessa Summers

History

The first African-American man elected to the Indiana House of Representatives was James Sidney Hinton in 1880. A few other African-American members, James Townsend, Richard Bassett and Gabriel Jones were elected in the late 19th century (all of whom, like Hinton, were Republicans), and after Jones' retirement in 1897, no African-Americans were elected again to the General Assembly until 1933, when Robert Stanton was elected as the first African-American Democrat in the House in 1933, and African-Americans have been present in the General Assembly ever since. In 1940, Robert Brokenburr, a Republican, became the first African-American State Senator. Daisy Riley Lloyd became the first African-American woman in the House in 1965, and Julia Carson and Katie Hall became the first in the Senate in 1977. In 1979, the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus was established.