A centenarian of immense popularity, Hawkins was a political icon and a legislative pioneer who paved the way in the United States Congress and the California State Assembly for the current generation of legislators.

Augustus F. Hawkins, who served in the California state assembly and was the first African American congressman from California, died over the weekend at a hospital in suburban Maryland of complications related to old age. Hawkins, the oldest living former member of Congress, celebrated his 100th birthday last August 31.

Augustus “Gus” Freeman Hawkins was born to Nyanza and Hattie Hawkins in Shreveport, Louisiana. To escape the constant threat of racism and pursue greater educational opportunities, the Hawkins family relocated to Los Angeles in 1918. Hawkins attended Jefferson High School, graduating in 1926, and earned his bachelor’s degree in economics at UCLA in 1931 with a degree in economics. Hawkins completed his graduate study at USC in 1932.

“Gus” was diminutive in physical stature and soft-spoken, but his achievements, particularly in progressive and civil rights legislation, far over-shadowed his physical being. As New Deal Democrat, Hawkins first became politically involved in writer Upton Sinclair’s “End Poverty in California” (EPIC). He also campaigned for Sinclair’s unsuccessful bid for governor of California in 1934 and in the presidential election of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Hawkins was a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions of 1940, 1944 and 1960 and a Presidential Elector in the 1944. In 1934, he and a small group of Black Democrats organized to unseat Black Republican Frederick Madison Roberts-the first Black to serve in the California Assembly. Hawkins was elected to the California State Assembly (62nd District) in 1935.

He authored over 100 laws in the areas of adult education, apprenticeship training, slum clearance; low cost housing; workmen’s compensation for domestics; disability insurance; pensions for senior citizens; and childcare centers; He was responsible for The Fair Employment Practice Act of 1959; the Manpower Development and Training Act of 1962; and The Fair Housing Act of 1963. He served as Chairman of the Rules, Public Utilities, Labor and Capital, Unemployment Committees and the Joint Committee on Legislative Organization. Hawkins served in the Assembly until 1962, when with the support of President John F. Kennedy, he was elected to the United States Congress from the 21st District (1963-75) and later the newly-formed 29th District (1975-91). He was the first African American to serve in that national body West of the Mississippi River.

 Assemblyman Mervyn M. Dymally considers Hawkins his political mentor, who was about to leave Sacramento for Washington D.C. when Dymally was first elected to the assembly in1962. Dymally said, “Had it not been for Gus, I would not be in politics today. He was my friend and my mentor. History would be kind to Congressman Augustus Hawkins; he was a man of great humility but historic accomplishments. In the closing days of the legislative session in August, he was honored on his 100th birthday.”

Beginning his Congressional tenure in the Eighty-Eighth Congress, the scope of Congressman Hawkins’s legislation, such as labor, employment, education, urban redevelopment and transportation, is broad. Hawkins co-authored the Humphrey Hawkins Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act (October 1978). In the wake of unemployment and inflation in the early 70s, the goal of Humphrey-Hawkins was full employment, growth in production, price stability and balance of trade and budget. In this way, explicit requirements and goals were set for the federal government to attain.

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