Two African-American Presiding Officers in Colorado

by Karl Kurtz

Colorado Democrats made legislative history today by electing Rep. Terrance Carroll (left) as speaker of the House and re-electing Peter Groff (right) as Senate president.  It will be the first time in American history that the presiding officers of both chambers of a legislature will be African-Americans.

For a complete list of previous African-America presiding officers, see "African-American Presiding Officers."

Nov. 7 update: Today's Rocky Mountain News reports on the selection of Carroll and Groff:

The Colorado legislature has only two black members. But now they are the two most powerful members of the 100-person body....

For the first time, two black men hold the leadership in the General Assembly of Colorado, a state where the Ku Klux Klan controlled the House, Senate and governor's seat in the 1920s.