Oscar Stanton De Priest

Oscar Stanton De Priest

Oscar Stanton De Priest (* 9. March 1871 in Florence , Alabama ; † 12. May 1951 in Chicago , Illinois ) was an American politician of the Republican Party , of the State of Illinois in the US House of Representatives represented.

Life

De Priest moved to Kansas with his parents in 1878 , who settled there in Salina , and after attending public schools and the Salina Normal School, he worked as a painter, varnisher and decorator . In 1889 he went to Chicago, where he took up a job as a real estate agent . At the beginning of the 20th century he began his political career in addition to local politics and was initially a member of the Board of Commissioners in Cook County and later from 1915 to 1917 member of the City Council of Chicago.

In the US congressional elections in 1928 he was elected as a representative of the Republican Party in the US House of Representatives and represented there as the successor to Martin B. Madden from March 4, 1929 to January 3, 1935 the first congressional electoral district of Illinois. In the 1934 congressional elections he was defeated by his Democratic challenger Arthur W. Mitchell as well as in the 1936 congressional election.

De Priest was the first African American MP to be elected to Congress in the 20th century and the last African American Congressman for the Republican Party for several decades before Gary Franks became a member of the United States House of Representatives for Connecticut's fifth constituency in 1990 . During this time he was from 1932 to 1934 also vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Republican Party in Cook County and 1936 delegate to the Republican National Convention .

After leaving Congress, he returned to working as a realtor and from 1943 to 1947 was again a member of the Chicago City Council. After his death he was buried in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.

Background literature

• Black Americans in Congress, 1870-2007 , United States Government Printing Office , Washington, DC 2008

Web links

• Oscar Stanton De Priest in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)