Diagne, député du Sénégal et Ht Commissaire du Congrès Pan Noir : photographie de presse

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Blaise Diagne (13 October 1872 - 11 May 1934) was a French political leader, the first black African elected to the French Chamber of Deputies, and mayor of Dakar.

He was a pioneer of black African electoral politics and an advocate of equal rights for all, regardless of race. He encouraged African accommodation of French rule and the adoption of French cultural and social norms. Though he was ahead of his time in 1914, by the later years of his life, African colonial politics had passed him by. He continue to advocate an African role in France while most Western-educated African elites embraced African nationalism and worked for eventual independence from the colonial powers.

It is alleged that he was not buried in the Muslim cemetery of Soumbedioune in Dakar because of his freemasonry. However, a large boulevard (Avenue Blaise Diagne) and a high school (Lycée Blaise Diagne) in Dakar were named in his honor, as well as Senegal’s new international airport, Blaise Diagne Airport in Ndiass, 52 kilometers outside of Dakar.

His son Raoul was the first black to play professional soccer in France and had great success playing for Racing Club de France in the late 1930s, winning the French title in 1936 and the French cup in 1936, 1939, and 1940.