Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Augustus Freeman "Gus" Hawkins (August 31, 1907 November 10, 2007) was a prominent African American Democratic Party politician and a figure in the history of Civil Rights and organized labor. He served as the first African American from California in the United States Congress, where he sponsored the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act. Hawkins was very fair-skinned and was often taken to be a person of solely white ancestry.