BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for May 31.

Jesse Dwight Locker was born.

He was an attorney, politician and, the second black American appointed as ambassador.

Locker graduated valedictorian of his class at College Hill High School and graduated from Howard University with a law degree in 1945.

He led the North Ward Progressive Republican Club and the Lincoln-Douglas Republican Club. He also endeavored with various charities. 

In 1941, he won the first of six terms on the city council, rising to become its president.

Locker also was president of the segregated Hamilton County Bar Association for Negro Lawyers.

In 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower named him ambassador to Liberia. His foremost diplomatic accomplishment was negotiating for use of the principal airport by U.S. airlines.

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