Dr. Matthew Oliver Ricketts (1858-1917) was Nebraska’s first African American legislator, serving from 1893 to 1897. He was also Nebraska’s first African American doctor, and first African American graduate of a higher education institution.

Early Life

Matthew Ricketts was born into slavery on April 3, 1858 in Henry County, Kentucky. After the Civil War, his parents moved to Missouri, where he finished school. He graduated from the Lincoln Institute in Jefferson City in 1876 when he was 18. He taught school in Boonville, Missouri, where his father was a minister, for about four years before coming to Omaha.

Ricketts’ parents moved to Omaha at some point after that. His father, Rev. Richard Ricketts, became the minister of St. John’s A.M.E. Church in the 1880s when it was located at North 18th and Webster Streets.

In 1876, Ricketts earned a degree from Howard University, and in 1880 he moved to Omaha. Working as a janitor at the Omaha Medical College at night, he decided to attend during the day. In 1884, Ricketts became the first African American college graduate and the first African American doctor in Nebraska. The Omaha Medical College eventually became the University of Nebraska Medical School.

Ricketts graduated with honors and moved to St. Joseph, Missouri, for an internship in St. Joseph in 1884. He received his first medical license from the State of Missouri in 1886. Moving back to Omaha, Ricketts opened an office to serve the city’s African American community. He also ran for a seat in the Nebraska State Legislature that year but lost. Getting active in the community, he became president of the Afro-American League. In 1891, he received his second medical license from the State of Nebraska. Popular and charismatic, Ricketts quickly became a key leader in Omaha’s African American community.

Legislative Experience

In 1892, Rickets ran for the Legislature and was elected to as the first African American to the Nebraska House of Representatives when the body had two houses. Elected in the wake of the 1891 lynching of George Smith, he served two terms from 1893 to 1897. During his second term, he was temporary speaker of the House. 

Serving the community determinedly, Ricketts is credited with opening Omaha’s first African American firefighting company; securing appointments for African Americans in Omaha’s city government and Nebraska state government; and serving throughout the community in philanthropic and service oriented organizations.

In the Nebraska Legislature, Ricketts is credited with:

• Chairing several committees and temporarily chairing the body
• Introducing a bill to legalize interracial marriages, which passed the Legislature only to be vetoed by the governor
• Introducing a bill to prohibit the denial of public services to African Americans. In 1893 Nebraska lawmakers passed a measure prohibiting race-based denial of services. 
• Strengthening the state’s 1885 civil rights law 
• Enacting of a bill that set an age of consent for marriage in Nebraska, relying on a petition of 500 African-American women in Omaha to carry it forward.

Later Life

After being denied a federal appointment by a Nebraska state senator, in 1903 he moved to St. Joseph, Missouri, where he practiced medicine for another 14 years.

Ricketts died in St. Joseph, on January 15, 1917 at the age of 64.

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MY ARTICLES ABOUT AFRICAN AMERICAN LEGISLATORS FROM NORTH OMAHA:
PEOPLE: Dr. Matthew Ricketts (1893–1897) | Dr. John A. Singleton (1926–1928) | Ferdinand L. Barnett (1927-1928) | Dr. Aaron M. McMillan (1929-1930) | Johnny Owen (1932-1935) | John Adams, Jr. (1935-1941) | John Adams, Sr. (1949-1962) | Edward Danner (1963-1970) | George W. Althouse (1970) | Ernie Chambers (1971–2009, 2013–2020) | Brenda J. Council (2009-2013) | Tanya Cook (2009-2016) | Justin Wayne (2017-present) | Terrell McKinney (2020-present)

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