`

Nebraska Authors

Ernest Chambers

AKA: Ernie Chambers

Born 1937 Omaha, NE (USA)

Ernie Chambers is an African-American State Legislator who served a 38-year term in the Nebraska State Legislature representing the 11th District in Omaha, ended by new term limits in 2009. He later returned for another full 2 terms in the Legislature. Chambers is the longest-serving state senator in the history of Nebraska. He ran for a position on the Omaha School Board, but did not get elected. He also failed as a write-in candidate for the City Council. He is also the only African-American to have run for governor and the U.S. Senate in Nebraska's history. Chambers is famous for poetry on political topics, biting political speeches, and command of legislative procedure. Much of his poetry was handed out in the form of broadsheets in the legislative chamber at the State Capitol.

Chambers is a towering figure in the history of his Omaha community, and in the history of the Nebraska State Legislature. Omaha native Tekla Agbala Ali Johnson has written a political biography of Chambers: Free Radical: Ernest Chambers, Black Power and the Politics of Race. 2012.

dsc

Places Lived

Omaha, NE

Author Of

  • Poetry
  • Biography

Keywords

Politics; Memoirs; Political Criticism; African-American Writers; State Legislature; Omaha, Nebraska

Education

Bachelor of Arts Degree, 1959, Creighton University, Omaha, NE
J.D., 1970, Creighton University, Omaha, NE

Occupation

Nebraska Legislator
Barber
Poet

Honors

“150 Notable Nebraskans”, Number 20 on the Journal Star Sesquicentennial List of Significant Nebraskans

Bibliography

Ernie Speaks for Himself. 1990. (with Marlin Pals)
Rhymes. 1991.
On the Record : The Floor Debate Transcripts of Senator Ernie Chambers 2018 Legislative Session. 2021.

We appreciate corrections and additions to our information about authors, but please read the following guidelines and caveats carefully.

  • The Nebraska Authors database is based on publicly available sources. Unless you are the author contacting us in person, it helps us if you cite the source or sources of your information. We cannot include unsourced information in the database.
  • We may be appreciative of information we choose not to include in the publicly available database.
  • To include an image on an author profile, please send jpg attachment to nebraskaauthors@lincoln.ne.gov. A photo-release agreement is required before the image will be published on this site.
  • Because of the way we are staffed, expect corrections or additions to take time, sometimes up to three months.
  • While we initially included some actual links to external URLs in the database, we will in the future no longer provide functioning links. We will instead record the presence of specific external materials in language that we hope will help intelligent users find it themselves. Web rot, in which actual materials remain online but undergo changes in their URLs, is too demanding in terms of staff time for us to hope to keep external links current.

Please copy, fill out the form below, and email it to heritage@lincoln.ne.gov to suggest a change.

/
Ernest Chambers
ernest-chambers

Do you have corrections for the above information or other information to add?:

(e.g. Author is buried in Fremont, not in David City / Also wrote for the Daily Nebraskan during her time as a student)