Oscar Stanton De Priest
Oscar Stanton De Priest ( born March 9, 1871 in Florence, Alabama, † May 12, 1951 in Chicago, Illinois ) was an American politician of the Republican Party, who represented the state of Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Life
De Priest moved in 1878 with his parents to Kansas, who settled there in Salina, and worked after attending public schools and the Salina Normal School as a painter and decorator, as well as a decorator. In 1889 he went to Chicago, where he took up employment as a real estate agent. Beginning of the 20th century, he then also began his political career in local politics and was first a member of the Council of Commissioners ( Board of Commissioners ) in Cook County and later from 1915 to 1917 Member of the City Council of Chicago.
The U.S. midterm elections in 1928, he was elected as a representative of the Republican Party in the U.S. House of Representatives and represented there as a successor to Martin B. Madden of 4 March 1929 to 3 January 1935, the first congressional district of Illinois. In the 1934 congressional elections, he defeated his Democratic challenger Arthur W. Mitchell, as well as in the congressional elections of 1936.
De Priest was the first African-American deputy, who was elected in the 20th century in the Congress, and for several decades of the last African American Congressman of the Republican Party before 1990 Gary Franks was for the fifth Congressional District of Connecticut Member of the U.S. House of Representatives. During this time, he was from 1932 to 1934 and Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Republican Party in Cook County and in 1936 a delegate to the Republican National Convention.
After retiring from Congress, he was back working as a Realtor and 1943-1947 once again a member of the City Council of Chicago. After his death he was buried in the Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.
Background literature
- Black Americans in Congress, 1870-2007, United States Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 2008