Prominent Louisville, attorney Charles W. Anderson became the first African American elected to the Kentucky State Legislature in 1935. Anderson served five consecutive terms as a Republican legislator.

During his tenure, he worked diligently for social and education reform. One bill sponsored by Anderson allowed all public schoolteachers in Kentucky to retain their teaching positions after marrying. Another bill provided graduate education money for African American students who had to study outside our state because of segregation laws. He also helped repeal a mandatory hanging law, and defeated a bill calling for the creation of a public whipping post.

Anderson became the Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney for Jefferson County in 1946; he was the first African American in the south to hold that position. In 1959 he was nominated by President Eisenhower to serve as an alternate United States Delegate to the United Nations General Assembly.

Tragically, Anderson's brilliant career was cut short when he died in an automobile accident in 1960.

Source: 

Gordon, Jimmy and McDaniel, Karen. Kentucky State University and South Central Bell Kentucky African-American Historical Profiles In Courage and Achievement. Frankfort: University Graphics, 1995.