Celebrating Black History month: Josiah Walls, first African-American Congressman from Florida

Josiah Thomas Walls, was born into slavery December 30, 1842 near Winchester, Virginia.  He was forced to join the Confederate army during the Civil War.  He was captured by the Union Army in 1862 and voluntarily joined the United States Colored Troops in 1863, rising to the rank of corporal.  He was discharged in Florida and settled in Alachua County, Florida, near Gainsville.

Walls was elected to the Florida House of Representatives from Alachua in December 1868 and took office in January.  He won the 1870 general election to serve in the 42nd Congress but was unseated after election "irregularities".

He was elected in the 1872 election and won. He established a national education fund and aid for Seminole War veterans.

He was re-elected in 1874 but a former Confederate colonel, contested the results of the elction and Walls lost his seat.

He became a teacher at the State Normal and Industrial College for Colored Students which would eventually become Florida A&M University.

Celebrating Black History Month: Gwen Cherry, first African-American woman elected for Florida House of Representatives

Gwen Cherry, born August 27, 1923 in Miami, Florida, was a founder of the National Association of Black Women Attorneys.  She was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1965 and became the first black woman to practice law in Dade County.

She was elected as a state legislator in Florida in 1970, the first African-American to serve in the Florida House.

Cherry died in a car accident in February 1979.  She was inducted into the Florida Women's Hall of Fame in 1986.