Harlem Republican Club
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The Harlem Republican Club was created in 2002 to create a permanent and visible Republican presence in the Harlem community.  The new club's members worked tirelessly that year to help reelect Governor George Pataki and look forward to carrying that energy forward for many other Republican campaigns in the future.

Although the Harlem Republican Club is a fledgling political organization, the history of Blacks and the Republican Party, however, is a proud and storied past.  Through very turbulent times, Republicans not only abolished slavery in America but established that Blacks have the right to vote.  In fact, many Black Republicans held office and were influential in state legislatures.  In 1869, the first to enter the US Congress were members of the Republican Party, establishing a trend that was not broken until 1935 when the first Black Democrat was elected to Congress.

• 1856 - The first candidate for President of the newly-created Republican Party, John C. Freemont, runs with the slogan: "Free soil, free labor, free speech, free men."

• 1860 - With the election of Abraham Lincoln, the Republican Party firmly establishes itself as a major political entity capable of holding the presidency for 60 of the next 100 years.

• 1862 - President Lincoln is the first US President to meet with a group of Black Leaders.

• 1863 - President Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves.

• 1864 - The Republican Party makes the abolition of slavery a plank on its party's platform.

• 1865 - Eleven Democrats break with their party and defect to the Republican side to vote "yes" for the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, thereby outlawing slavery in America.  Republicans in Congress also work to pass the Fourteenth Amendment in 1968 guaranteeing equal protection under the law and the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870 specifically securing the right to vote for American Blacks.

• 1896 - The Republican Party becomes the first major party to favor the right to vote for women in America.  Twenty-four years later, Congress passes the Nineteenth Amendment, thereby guaranteeing women the right to vote.  Of the 36 State legislatures that voted to ratify the amendment, 26 were under Republican control.

• 1917 - The first woman is elected to the United States Congress - Republican Jeannette Rankin from Montana.

Black Republican History

• 1868 - Oscar J. Dunn becomes Lt. Governor of Louisiana.  P.B.S. Pinchback and James Harris become the first Black delegates at a major party convention for the Republican Party in Chicago.

• 1870 - Hiriam R. Revels of Mississippi becomes the first Black member of United States Senate.

• 1871 - Robert B. Elliot chairs the South Carolina delegation to the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia.

• 1872 - John R. Lynch is elected Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives.

• 1875 - Blanche K. Bruce of Mississppi becomes the first Black elected to a full term in the United States Senate.

• 1884 - John R. Lynch is the first Black to preside over a major party convention when he delivers the keynote address at the Republican National Convention.

• 1966 - Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts is elected to the United States Senate by popular vote.

• 1968 - Arthur A. Fletcher is appointed Assistant Secretary of Labor under President Richard M. Nixon; he later became a candidate for Chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1976 and Chairman of the US Commission of Civil Rights in 1990.

• 1975 - President Gerald Ford appoints William T. Coleman to serve as Secretary of Transportation.

• 1980 - NAACP President Benjamin Hooks is invited to address the Republican National Convention in Detriot.

• 1989 - President George H.W. Bush appoints General Colin L. Powell to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

• 1991 - President Bush nominates Clarence Thomas for the United States Supreme Court.

• 2001 - President George W. Bush assembles the most diverse administration in history, appointing

  • Colin L. Powell as Secretary of State;

  • Condeleezza Rice as National Security Advisor;

  • Roderick R. Paige as Secretary of Education;

  • Alphonso Jackson as Deputy Secretary of Housing and Urban Development;

  • Claude Allen as Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services;

  • Leo S. MacKay, Jr. as the Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs;

  • Larry D. Thompson as Deputy Attorney General;

  • Stephen A. Perry as Administrator of the United States General Services Administration;

  • In addition, Norman Mineta and Elaine Chao become the first Asian cabinet members as they are appointed Secretary of Transportation and Labor, respectively.