ASSEMBLY STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION No. 122

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  FEBRUARY 19, 2026

      The Assembly State and Local Government Committee reports favorably Assembly Resolution No. 122.

      This resolution honors the life and legacy of Thomas Mundy Peterson for being the first African American to vote in the United States following the ratification of the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which stipulates that any citizen has the right to vote, regardless of their race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

      Born in Metuchen, New Jersey on October 6, 1824 to a formerly enslaved mother and a free father, Thomas Mundy Peterson later moved to Perth Amboy, New Jersey, where at the age of 45, he became the first African American to vote after the ratification of the 15th Amendment.  On March 31, 1870, Peterson bravely voted in Perth Amboy in an election to revise the city’s charter.  Although Peterson was encouraged to vote by his boss, abolitionists, and social reformers, he reported that one white man tore up his ballot in anger at seeing an African American man vote.

      After his pioneering vote, Peterson was appointed as a member of a committee of seven to revise certain portions of the Perth Amboy City Charter.  He also continued to vote in every election he could for the rest of his life.  Peterson continued his civic engagement as a delegate for the Middlesex County Republican Convention and later as a delegate in the New Jersey gubernatorial convention of the Prohibition Party, believing temperance was a critical issue.  He also became the first African American to serve on a jury in Perth Amboy.

      Following confirmation by a bipartisan committee that Peterson was the first African American to vote after ratification of the 15th Amendment, the people of Perth Amboy raised money to create a gold medallion commemorating Peterson’s historic vote.  On May 30, 1884, the people of Perth Amboy presented him with the medallion bearing his name, the engraved face of Abraham Lincoln on one side, and, on the other side, the inscription “Presented by Citizens of Perth Amboy, N.J. to THOMAS PETERSON, The First Colored Voter in the U.S. Under the Provisions of the 15th Amendment, at an Election Held in that City, March 31, 1870.”  Peterson proudly wore his medallion and was said to have never considered himself properly dressed without it.