Two Liberians whose families escaped civil war in the 1990s and sought refuge in the US have been elected to office in the states of Colorado and Rhode Island respectively.
Naquetta Ricks won a seat in Colorado’s House of Representatives, while high school principal Nathan Biah won a state seat in Rhode Island.
Ms Ricks said she will seek “to ensure that whether you are a new immigrant or a fifth-generation Coloradan, you are given an equal opportunity to succeed in life”, according to her campaign website.
Mr Biah spent his childhood in Liberia’s capital, Monrovia, when the civil war broke out. He walked to the border with neighbouring Ivory Coast before reuniting with his family in Rhode Island,