1973: Lelia Foley-Davis was elected mayor of Taft, Oklahoma.

Submitted by Jean Sinzdak on Fri, 08/06/2021 - 13:01
Caption

Lelia Foley-Davis was elected mayor of Taft, Oklahoma. She was widely cited in national news reports at the time as the nation's first elected Black woman mayor. While she is not technically the first (see the 1971 timeline entry on Ellen Walker Craig-Jones), she is one of the very first Black women to serve as mayor of a municipality in the country and the first Black woman to serve as mayor of an all-Black town. 

Year
1973