Joshua D. Peters (born August 25, 1987) is an American politician in the Democratic Party who was the Missouri State Representative of Missouri's 76th District from 2013 to 2019. Peters was first elected in a special election on April 2, 2013. He represented portions of north Saint Louis City. At the time of his election, he was the youngest African American ever elected to the Missouri House of Representatives. In 2016 Peters served as the House Minority Chief Deputy Whip.

Early career

Peters served as a legislative assistant and office manager to Congressman

Lacy Clay William Lacy Clay Jr. (born July 27, 1956) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative from from 2001 to 2021. His congressional career ended after he lost in a Democratic primary to Cori Bush in 2020, after successfully ...

Missouri's 1st congressional district Missouri's 1st congressional district is in the eastern portion of the state. It includes all of St. Louis, St. Louis City and much of northern St Louis County, Missouri, St. Louis County, including the cities of Maryland Heights, Missouri, Mar ...

for three years and was appointed by President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

as the Confidential Assistant to the Under Secretary of Education,

Martha Kanter Martha J. Kanter is the former Under Secretary of Education. She was appointed by President Barack Obama on April 29, 2009, and confirmed by the Senate on June 19, 2009. She served as chancellor of the Foothill–De Anza Community College Distric ...

. where he assisted in the creation and establishment of the 'Financial Aid Shopping Sheet,' offering college-bound students a resource to understand the type and level of financial aid they qualified for.

Missouri Legislature

As a democrat in a supermajority republican led legislator, Peters successfully pass ten Bills and countless amendments and focused on constituent services. After learning about 18 fatal crashes, including 13 involving pedestrians, on Natural Bridge Avenue in the city of St. Louis. Peters successfully secured 7 million dollars to launch the Missouri Department of Transportation, Natural Bridge Safety Initiative. Peters and MoDOT partnered with St. Louis Metropolitan Police Dept. and six St. Louis Aldermen to designate a 4-mile segment of Natural Bridge between Goodfellow and Parnell, a Travel Safe Zone. In 2016, Peters secured state funding for Lincoln University's 1890 Land-grant, which had not been appropriated by the state legislature since 1866. Peters stated, "Lincoln University is our state's most diverse institution and performs agricultural research that is vital to rural Missouri," Peters said. "It is well past time for Lincoln to be treated fairly and receive its full land-grant appropriation." On April 24, 2017, Peters, along with Missouri State Representative

Bruce Franks Jr. Bruce Franks Jr. (born September 22, 1984) is an American community activist, musician, battle rapper, and former politician. He served in the Missouri House of Representatives representing the 78th District and as the Chairman of the Subcommitt ...

, filed a housing discrimination complaint to the

United States Department of Housing and Urban Development The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It administers federal housing and urban development laws. It is headed by the secretary of housing and u ...

. The case alleged that a concentration of facilities serving homeless people created a strong disparity within St. Louis City's Near Northside. In addition to his official duties, Peters remained active within his party on April 5, 2017, he was appointed as the first congressional designee to the executive board of the Missouri Democratic Party.

House committees

As a member of the Missouri House, Peters served on the following committees: *International Trade *Government Efficiency, Ranking Minority Member *Budget *Professional Registration and Licensing *Agriculture Policy *Appropriations-Public Safety and Correction *Special Committee on Urban Issues *Subcommittee on Appropriations - Agriculture, Conservation, Natural Resources, and Economic Development *Subcommittee on Scope of Practice

Affiliations

Peters is a member of

Kappa Alpha Psi Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. () is a List of African-American fraternities, historically African American Fraternities and sororities, fraternity. Since the fraternity's founding on January 5, 1911, at Indiana University Bloomington, it has n ...

fraternity and serves as a member of the board of directors of the

Missouri Arts Council The Missouri Arts Council is a division of the Office of the Lieutenant Governor. The Council is funded through the Missouri General Assembly, Missouri Cultural Trust, and National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts ( ...

Trust, the Congressional Black Associates, Pi Sigma Alpha, a Thurgood Marshall Scholar (09), the U.S. Selective Service, Logan University, and the Betty Jean Kerr People's Health Center of St. Louis. Peters holds the rank of Major o
Civil Air Patrol U.S. Air Force Auxiliary
Peters retired from public office after being involved in a car accident, which left him incapacitated for three months of the legislative session. Peters is currently the Chief of Staff and Director of Internal Operations of Harris-Stowe State University. Peters is a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

by faith and practice.

Elections

Political offices

References

External links

Official Missouri House of Representatives profile

Personal Website

Profile
at

Project Vote Smart Vote Smart, formerly called Project Vote Smart, is an American non-profit, non-partisan research organization that collects and distributes information on candidates for public office in the United States. It covers candidates and elected offic ...

Profile
at

Ballotpedia Ballotpedia is a nonprofit and nonpartisan online political encyclopedia that covers federal, state, and local politics, elections, and public policy in the United States. The website was founded in 2007. Ballotpedia is sponsored by the Lucy Bur ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peters, Joshua 1987 births Living people Democratic Party members of the Missouri House of Representatives African-American Catholics Politicians from St. Louis African-American state legislators in Missouri Catholics from Missouri 21st-century African-American politicians 20th-century African-American politicians 21st-century members of the Missouri General Assembly