Since its inception in 1976, the Lansing-based Michigan Legislative Black Caucus (MLBC) has stood at the vanguard of assuring that Black Michiganders have fair and equitable access to the democratic and political processes throughout the state. In essence, MLBC believes that Black and other systematically marginalized communities in the Wolverine State are fully, fearlessly, and authentically positioned to pursue the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and happiness.
“Our mission is captured in our slogan: Legislative power with purpose,” said MLBC’s executive director Chris Jackson. “Given our long history of enslavement, discrimination, and inequalities, Black Americans deserve an efficient, effective, and accountable government without compromise.”
According to Jackson, MLBC is comprised of 30-plus Black-elected legislators serving in the Michigan State Senate and Michigan House of Representatives. The organization fosters valuable partnerships to provide Black citizens of Michigan with equal access, equal justice, and equal opportunity across broad sectors of state government. MLBC’s legislative policy pillars are rooted in issues centered on civil rights, community safety, and justice, culture, and society, education justice, economic and community advancement, environment, health equity and justice, and immigration and international diaspora relations and advancements.
While MLBC’s official website touts an all-Black group of officers, led by chairwoman and Sen. Erika Geiss (Taylor, 1st District), executive Vice Chair, Rep. Amos O’Neal (Saginaw, 94th District), and 1st Vice Chairperson Sen. Sarah Anthony (Lansing, 21st District), the organization’s general membership, although mostly Black, includes representatives of other ethnicities who Jackson said represent Michigan’s Black communities.
When asked whether MLBC formally endorses political candidates in primary and general elections, Jackson said, “We certainly know how important elections are, but as a 501 c3 organization, we don’t endorse and get involved directly with primary or general elections in that manner. However, that’s not to say that our members, individually, can’t get involved as they see fit in various elections. As an organization, we focus on making sure that the Black community gets out to vote through our many strong partnerships with various coalitions.”
Jackson, a native of Pontiac, said that MLBC also takes pro-active measures to support initiatives empowering Black people and communities. And, where initiatives are counter-productive to the progress of Black people across the state, it is not beyond MLBC’s scope to take appropriate positions that address troubling issues.
“We absolutely keep our eye on what’s happening statewide and nationally and how it impacts African Americans,” Jackson said. “We want to be in lockstep as much as we can with what issues the Congressional Black Caucus takes on and the issues facing our neighboring Black state Caucuses.”
Jackson said in April 2023, MLBC issued a press release citing its solidarity with two Tennessee Black representatives, Justin Jones (D-Nashville) and Justin Pearson (D-Memphis), when the state’s General Assembly expelled both Democratic lawmakers. The two Black lawmakers ultimately reclaimed their legislative seats. In June 2023, MLBC issued a statement of opposition to the U.S. Supreme Court’s bold decision to strike down affirmative action in higher education.
Closer to home, in Feb. 2024, MLBC held a unity press conference to rebuke a racist social media message posted by White state lawmaker Josh Schriver (R-Oxford). Schriver was eventually stripped of his committee assignments amid the widespread outrage and condemnation of his endorsing the racist “replacement theory.” MLBC also publicly lauded the signing of Michigan’s 2024 Fiscal Year budget, which included the most significant increase ever in funding to the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, direct funding for minority-owned businesses, community public safety initiatives (prevention funding and community-based crisis response), and funding for equity in providing accurate historical education.
“It’s no secret that this budget is the most equitable in Michigan’s history,” said MLBC officer Sen. Anthony, the first African American woman to chair the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee. “Our voices are at the table, and we have legislators in positions of leadership to move our communities’ priorities forward.”
While MLBC continues to make strides on behalf of Black communities, Jackson said the organization is committed to pressing forward even more.
“There is much more work to be done on a macro-level with the collective help of the historical Black representation that we now have across Michigan,” Jackson said. “There is now more Black state representation than ever, which means there are more voices at the table to accomplish things on behalf of Black people and communities.”
Having more Black Representation at the political tables of Lansing hasn’t always been the case. Before 1976, leading to the upstart of MLBC, small numbers of Black legislators served in the State Capitol. Historically, the first African American elected to any Michigan legislative office was William W. Ferguson (Michigan House of Representative), who served two terms beginning in 1893. Other elected Black pioneering state legislators came decades later, including Detroiter Charles Roxborough (Michigan Senate in 1930) and Charles C. Diggs Sr. (Michigan Senate in 1937).
In 1950, Charlene White became the first Black woman elected to the Michigan House of Representatives. Black state legislators elected “ in 1976 or before” have included Charles C. Diggs Jr.(Michigan Senate), Coleman A. Young (Michigan Senate), Jackie Vaughn II (Michigan Senate and Michigan House of Representatives), David S. Holmes (Michigan Senate), and Morris Hood, Jr. (Michigan House of Representatives).
However, in 1976, five years after the Congressional Black Caucus was formed in Washington, D.C., the Michigan Legislative Black Caucus took flight, pledging to generate more legislative power for the people with a purpose. The organization was formed at the Detroit home of Rep. Hood Jr., the coalition’s first Caucus Chairman.
It is believed that approximately 104 African Americans have been elected to serve in the Michigan State Senate and Michigan House of Representatives in the state’s history. With the growing number of African Americans winning state legislative seats, the formation of MLBC has proven that there is strength in numbers to create, unify, and maintain a powerful voice to benefit Michigan’s Black citizens.
“MLBC is needed because we, as Black legislators, can come together to exchange ideas and strategize and discuss the needs of our districts and the needs of the Black community throughout the state,” said Rep. Donovan McKinney, who, along with Rep. Kimberly L. Edwards, made history in 2022 as the first Black state legislators to ever represent Macomb County. “MLBC is an organization where we can figure out what issues we have in common, but also dispel the typical narrative that Black folks’ needs are monolithic, which is far from the truth.”
About Post Author
