It has been 20 years since a Black man represented California in Congress
WASHINGTON — Black women in California sounded the alarm that there could be zero Black women in the Senate once Kamala Harris became vice president. With Gov. Gavin Newsom appointing Alex Padilla to the vacant seat in January, that became the reality.
But there’s an even deeper absence in Congress, one that’s in its third decade: It has been more than 20 years since a Black man represented California.
The last person to do so was Rep. Julian Carey Dixon, a Los Angeles Democrat, who died of a heart attack in December 2000 after winning reelection a month earlier.
California, the most populous state in the nation with nearly 40 million people, is less than 6% Black, according to
