Mahoney, Charles H., 1886-1966

Charles H. Mahoney, Detroit attorney and businessman, was the first African-American to serve as U.S. delegate to the United Nations, having been appointed in 1954 by President Dwight Eisenhower. Born in Decatur, Michigan in 1886 to Barney and Viora Simpson Mahoney, Charles finished his early education at Decatur. He attended Olivet College, distinguishing himself as an orator and an athlete. He later attended Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn, before entering the University of Michigan Law School, where he received his law degree in 1911. Charles Mahoney entered the practice of law in Detroit in 1912, and during the Sweet Trial, he was associate council to Clarence Darrow. In 1928, he was a founder of the Great Lakes Insurance Company in Detroit, serving as President and Board member from 1928-1959. In 1918 he ran unsuccessfully for Detroit's first nine man council. His later bids for Congress on the Republican ticket were also unsuccessful. Often an appointive public servant, he was the first African-American to serve on the Detroit City Plan Commission, the Wayne County Board of Supervisors, the Michigan Labor Commission, and during WW I, Governor Groesbeck's Michigan Interracial Commission. (from Margaret Ward, April, 1984) (blue index cards)

African American lawyer and executive, of Detroit, Mich.