Thurbert Baker

Thurbert Earl Baker (born December 16, 1952) was the first African American Attorney General of the U.S. state of Georgia. He was appointed to the position in 1997 by Governor Zell Miller and served until January 10, 2011.

Governor Zell Miller installed Thurbert Baker (at the time his chief lieutenant in the Georgia House of Representatives) as attorney general on June 1, 1997, making him the first African-American to hold that job in Georgia and the only black state attorney general in the country at the time. Baker was subsequently elected to the position three times as a Democrat. In the 2006 general election, Baker received more votes—and a higher percentage of the vote—than any other Democrat running statewide in Georgia, being one of three Democrats to win statewide that year (the other two being Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin and Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond). These three would remain the last Democrats to win statewide in Georgia until 2020, when Joe Biden narrowly carried the state in his successful presidential bid. Baker served the fourth-longest tenure as Attorney General in state history (behind Eugene Cook, Arthur K. Bolton and Michael J. Bowers).