Amelia Audrey Moore Tucker (1902 – February 9, 1987) was an American politician and minister from the U.S. state of Kentucky. She was the first African-American woman elected to the Kentucky General Assembly, serving in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1961 to 1963.
Amelia Tucker | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Kentucky House of Representatives from the 40th District | |
| In office 1961–1963 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Amelia Audrey Moore 1902 Alabama, US |
| Died | February 9, 1987 (aged 84–85) Los Angeles, California, US |
| Education | Alabama State University, University of Louisville |
| Occupation | Politician, minister |
Life and career
editTucker was born in Alabama in 1902 and attended Alabama State Teachers College and the University of Louisville.[1] She moved to Louisville, Kentucky, with her husband, Charles Ewbank Tucker, in the 1920s.[2] Her husband was bishop, and she was a minister, at the Brown Temple AMEZ Church. In the 1930s, her husband ran twice unsuccessfully on the Democratic ticket for the Kentucky House of Representatives.[1]
Tucker was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1961 as a Republican, defeating a Black Democratic candidate[3] to become the first Black woman to serve in the Kentucky General Assembly and the first to serve as a Southern state legislator since Reconstruction.[4] She served one term. She fought to bar businesses from engaging in racial discrimination and enacted a law permitting municipalities to enact their own civil rights laws.[2] She served on President Richard Nixon's advisory council on ethnic groups during the early 1970s.[1] She also served on the Jefferson County Republican executive committee during the 1960s and 1970s.[5]
Personal life
editAfter her husband's death in 1975, Tucker moved to Los Angeles, where she died on February 9, 1987, and was interred at Eastern Cemetery.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c d "Tucker, Amelia A. Moore". Notable Kentucky African Americans Database. Archived from the original on 2023-12-08. Retrieved 2023-12-08.
- ^ a b Wallenstein, Peter (2012). "Pioneer Black Legislators from Kentucky, 1860s—1960s". The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society. 110 (3/4): 548–549. ISSN 0023-0243. JSTOR 23388061 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Farrington, Joshua D. (2016). Black Republicans and the Transformation of the GOP. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 125. ISBN 978-0-8122-4852-4.
- ^ Smith, Gerald L.; McDaniel, Karen Cotton; Hardin, John A. (2015-08-28). The Kentucky African American Encyclopedia. University Press of Kentucky. p. 385. ISBN 978-0-8131-6066-5.
- ^ "Obituary for Amelia M. Tucker". Courier Journal. 1987-02-13. p. 18. Retrieved 2023-12-08.