Jennifer McClellan makes history as the first Black woman elected to Congress in Virginia

Explore Our Galleries

An NAACP flyer campaigning for the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 1922, but was filibustered to defeat in the Senate. Dyer, the NAACP, and freedom fighters around the country, like Flossie Baily, struggled for years to get the Dyer and other anti-lynching bills passed, to no avail. Today there is still no U.S. law specifically against lynching. In 2005, eighty of the 100 U.S. Senators voted for a resolution to apologize to victims' families and the country for their failure to outlaw lynching. Courtesy of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Some Exhibits to Come – One Hundred Years of Jim Crow

Bibliography – One Hundred Years Of Jim Crow

Claude, age 23, just months before his 1930 murder. Courtesy of Faith Deeter.

Freedom’s Heroes During Jim Crow: Flossie Bailey and the Deeters

Souvenir Portrait of the Lynching of Abram Smith and Thomas Shipp, August 7, 1930, by studio photographer Lawrence Beitler. Courtesy of the Indiana Hisorical Society.

An Iconic Lynching in the North

Claxton Dekle – Prosperous Farmer, Husband & Father of Two

Ancient manuscripts about mathematics and astronomy from Timbuktu, Mali

Some Exhibits to Come – African Peoples Before Captivity

Shackles for Adults & Children from the Henrietta Marie

Some Exhibits to Come – The Middle Passage

What I Saw Aboard a Slave Ship in 1829

Life After Hate: A Former White Power Leader Redeems Himself

Breaking News!

Today's news and culture by Black and other reporters in the Black and mainstream media.

Click Here

Ways to Support ABHM?

Click Here

February 21, 2023

By Zoe Richards, NBC News

Virginia Congresswoman, Jennifer Mcclellan — State Sen. Jennifer McClellan at a canvassing event in Richmond, Va., on Dec. 17, 2023. Tom Williams / CQ Roll Call via AP file

Democrat Jennifer McClellan has made history as the first Black woman elected to represent Virginia in Congress, NBC News projected Tuesday.

McClellan, a state senator, defeated Republican Leon Benjamin in Tuesday’s special election in the 4th Congressional District. She will fill the seat of Democratic Rep. Donald McEachin, who died from cancer shortly after he won re-election in November.

“It still blows my mind that we’re having firsts in 2023,” McClellan said in an interview. “My ancestors fought really hard to have a seat at that table, and now not only will I have a seat at the table in Congress; I’ll be able to bring that policymaking table into communities that never really had a voice before…”

McClellan will join 29 other Black women in the House. There are no Black women in the Senate.

“I feel a responsibility to ensure I’m not the last,” she said…

McClellan served 11 years in the House of Delegates and has been a member of the state Senate since 2017. She ran for governor in 2021, losing in a five-person primary to Terry McAuliffe, who ultimately lost to Republican Glenn Youngkin.

McClellan’s campaign focused on her legislative victories, highlighting efforts to protect voting rights and domestic workers — issues that resonated with her family’s experiences and that she said helped shape her policy views.

To enjoy the complete article, click here.

For more Breaking News click here.

For more ABHM galleries click here.

Comments Are Welcome

Note: We moderate submissions in order to create a space for meaningful dialogue, a space where museum visitors – adults and youth –– can exchange informed, thoughtful, and relevant comments that add value to our exhibits.

Racial slurs, personal attacks, obscenity, profanity, and SHOUTING do not meet the above standard. Such comments are posted in the exhibit Hateful Speech. Commercial promotions, impersonations, and incoherent comments likewise fail to meet our goals, so will not be posted. Submissions longer than 120 words will be shortened.

See our full Comments Policy here.