Nine years after black men were enfranchised in the state, in 1866 Walker, representing Boston's Ward 3,[REF] and Charles Lewis Mitchell (1829-1912) representing Ward 6, were the first black men elected to the Massachusetts State Legislature [REF].
On Tuesday, November 6, 1866, Claude August Crommelin remarked in his diary about the otherwise quiet election day: Only the election of two colored men as representatives in the state legislature made some noise here and gave sufficient matter for conversation, as this is the first election of its kind.