Scope and Contents:
This collection includes four items relating to Arthur Wergs Mitchell (1882-1968), who served as the Illinois Representative for the First Congressional District from 1935 until 1943. The materials in this collection include a mounted photograph of Wergs, two Congressional Records, and a slip-bill (a bill published as an unbound pamphlet) printing of Bill H. R. 2251.
Arthur Wergs Mitchell was born in Alabama in 1883. After admission to the bar, Mitchell moved to Chicago. He was elected as Representative for Illinois First Congressional District in 1934, becoming the first African American Democrat elected to Congress. He served as a representative from 1935 until 1943. While in Congress, Mitchell authored unsuccessful bills against lynching and racial discrimination. In 1937, Mitchell sued the Illinois Central, Rock Island, and Pullman railroad companies for unequal and unfair treatment after he was removed from first-class accommodations. He argued and won this case in the Supreme Court in 1941. Mitchell’s last congressional term ended in 1943. He retired to Petersburg, Virginia, and died there in 1968.
This collection includes materials relating to Arthur Wergs Mitchell. The first item is a photograph of Arthur Wergs Mitchell. The photograph is mounted and includes an inscription written by Mitchell reading “Arthur W. Mitchell M. C. May 26, 1936.” The second item is a Congressional Record, dated April 22, 1936. This record is an offprint of Mitchell’s first address to the House. In this address, he discussed his reasoning for joining the Democratic Party and his interest in passing anti-lynching legislation. The third item in this collection is a Congressional Record from May 19, 1936. This record consists of a speech Mitchell made on lynching in Ohio. It also includes a telegram Mitchell sent to the Governor of Georgia, Eugene Talmadge, denouncing Talmadge for not condemning recent lynchings, and a letter from the NAACP head Walter White criticizing Mitchell and Mitchell’s response to the criticism. The fourth item in this collection is titled 75th Congress 1st Session H.R. 2251, a bill introduced in the House of Representatives on January 8, 1937. This is a slip-bill printing of Mitchell’s proposed anti-lynching law.
The Library purchased this collection in 2024 with the support of the Bruce C. Creamer Fund.
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