MITCHELL, ARTHUR W.

As the first black American to serve in Congress as a Democrat, Arthur Wergs Mitchell (December 22, 1883–May 9, 1968) pioneered black Americans' transition from the Republican to the Democratic Party.

Born in Roanoke, Alabama, Mitchell possessed great intelligence and ruthless ambition. He attended Tuskegee Institute for two years and received his teaching certificate from Alabama's Snow Hill Institute in 1903. Later that year, Mitchell founded the West Alabama Normal and Industrial Institute in Panola County. The school suffered from financial mismanagement and poor relations with the local black community. When a fire destroyed the school's main building in 1915, Mitchell fled with the insurance money and headed to the Armstrong Agricultural Institute in Choctaw County. At Armstrong, Mitchell's haughty behavior alienated poor blacks and whites alike, resulting in his leaving for Washington, D.C., in 1919 with $10,000 from the school's reserves.

After a successful real estate career in Washington, Mitchell moved to Chicago in 1928 to become active in local Republican politics. Chicago Republicans, however, possessed too many established black politicians for Mitchell to move up as quickly as he desired, so Mitchell switched to the Democratic Party. Mitchell's arrival coincided with a push by local Democrats to convert Chicago blacks to the Democratic cause. Consequently, Mitchell moved up the ranks quickly, becoming in 1934 the first black Democrat to be elected to Congress.

From the start, Mitchell suffered from poor relations with his black constituents at home and across the country. Aside from his ardent support for the New Deal, Mitchell did little to address the economic deprivations blacks faced during the Depression. The black press frequently criticized Mitchell for his "lack of aggressiveness" on civil rights. He feuded with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which he labeled a "vicious" organization. Finally, Mitchell's anti-labor sentiments led Associated Negro Press reporter George F. McCray to characterize Mitchell's labor policy as "reckless, and unenlightened."

Mitchell shifted towards a moderate civil rights stance later in his career, becoming a vocal critic of the poll tax and lynching. In 1937, after being forced to ride in a segregated railroad car in Arkansas, Mitchell defied his political bosses in Chicago by launching a personal damage suit against three Chicago-based railroad companies that observed Jim Crow seating arrangements in the South. The Supreme Court decided in Mitchell's favor in 1941, but Mitchell's unwillingness to drop the case cost him the support of Chicago's Democratic leadership. Knowing he could not win reelection without party support, Mitchell announced his retirement and moved to his country estate in Petersburg, Virginia, in 1942.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barnett, Claude. Papers. Chicago Historical Society, Chicago, Illinois.

Drake, St. Clair, and Horace R. Cayton. Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City, rev. edition. 1993.

Grimshaw, William J. Bitter Fruit: Black Politics and the Chicago Political Machine, 1931–1991. 1992.

Nordin, Dennis S. The New Deal's Black Congressman: A Life of Arthur Wergs Mitchell. 1997.