John Wheaton
*John Frank Wheaton was born on this date in 1866. He was a Black politician and lawyer.
He was born in Hagerstown, Maryland, where his father claimed to be the first Black man to vote in that state. Wheaton was educated at Stover College in Harpers Ferry, Va., and Howard University. He moved to Minneapolis in 1890, living at 1011 East Twenty-Eighth Street.
He enrolled in college and became the first Black to graduate from the University of Minnesota Law School. Among his many positions were clerk in Congress, clerk in the state legislature, and clerk in municipal court. In 1896, Wheaton was elected a member of the Minnesota delegation to the Republican Convention in St. Louis.
In 1898, Wheaton was the first Black man elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives from a predominantly immigrant district. He supported American Civil Rights and lobbied for the commissioning of Black officers during the Spanish-American War. John Wheaton died in 1938.
Minnesota Historical Society
345 W. Kellogg Blvd.
Saint Paul, MN 55102-1906
