Ray O'Jean Pleasant (April 22, 1928 – May 27, 2022) was an American politician in the state of

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

. Pleasant was born in Jetmore, Kansas. He served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

during the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

as an army engineer and received his bachelor's degree in electric engineering from

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

in 1951. Pleasant worked for

Remington Rand Remington Rand, Inc. was an early American business machine manufacturer, originally a typewriter manufacturer and in a later incarnation the manufacturer of the UNIVAC line of mainframe computers. Formed in 1927 following a merger, Remington ...

and was sent to

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

, Minnesota. He then lived in

Bloomington, Minnesota Bloomington is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. It is located on the north bank of the Minnesota River above its confluence with the Mississippi River, south of downtown Minneapolis and just south of the Interstate 494/Inter ...

with his wife and family and served on the Bloomington City Council from 1970 to 1973. Pleasant then served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1973 to 1980 as an Independent Republican member, representing district 39B. He was the second African-American to be elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives, and the first since the election of John Francis Wheaton in 1899. Pleasant's wife A. Gene Crenshaw served for a time on the judicial selection board of the governor of Minnesota.Minnesota legislature biographical file on Pleasant
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References

1928 births 2022 deaths People from Bloomington, Minnesota People from Hodgeman County, Kansas Military personnel from Kansas Minnesota city council members Republican Party members of the Minnesota House of Representatives African-American state legislators in Minnesota University of Kansas alumni 21st-century African-American politicians 20th-century African-American politicians 20th-century members of the Minnesota Legislature {{Minnesota-MNRepresentative-Republican-stub