How many African Americans have served in the U.S. Congress? How did Reconstruction, the Great Migration, and the post–World War II civil rights movement affect black Members of Congress? Who was the first African American to chair a congressional committee?

These questions and many more are answered in Black Americans in Congress, 1870–2007, the most comprehensive history available on the 121 African Americans who have served in Congress.

Read about:

• Pioneers who overcame racial barriers, such as Oscar De Priest of Illinois, the first African American elected to Congress in the 20th century, and Shirley Chisholm of New York, the first black Congresswoman
• Masters of institutional politics, such as Augustus “Gus” Hawkins of California, Louis Stokes of Ohio, and Julian Dixon of California
• Notables such as Civil War hero Robert Smalls of South Carolina, civil rights champion Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., of New York, and constitutional scholar Barbara Jordan of Texas
• And many more.

Written for a general audience, this book contains a profile of each African-American Member. Former Member profiles are introduced by contextual essays that explain major events in congressional and U.S. history.

Black Americans in Congress also includes:

• Pictures—including rarely seen historical images—of each African American who has served in Congress
• Bibliographies and references to manuscript collections for each Member
• Statistical graphs and charts
• A comprehensive index

Visit Black Americans in Congress, 1870-2007 Download Page

You can download full publication in PDF format.

Hardcover: 803 pages
Publisher: United States Congress; Third edition (October 3, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 016080194X
ISBN-13: 978-0160801945

Researched and written by the Office of History and Preservation in the Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, Black Americans in Congress is the second volume in a four-part congressionally mandated series about minorities who have served in Congress.

Visit Black Americans in Congress, 1870-2007 Website

INTRODUCTION

The arrival of Senator Hiram Revels of Mississippi and Representative Joseph Rainey of South Carolina on Capitol Hill in 1870 ranks among the great paradoxes in American history; just a decade earlier, these African Americans’ congressional seats were held by southern slave owners.

Moreover, the U.S. Capitol, where these newest Members of Congress came to work—the center of legislative government, conceived by its creators as the “Temple of Liberty”—had been constructed with the help of enslaved laborers.1  From this beginning, Black Americans in Congress, 1870–2007 chronicles African Americans’ participation in the federal legislature and their struggle to attain full civil rights.

The institution of Congress, and the careers of the black Members who have served in both its chambers, have undergone extensive changes during this span of nearly 140 years. But while researching and writing this book, we encountered several recurring themes that led us to ask the following questions: What were black Members’ legislative priorities? Which legislative styles did African Americans employ to integrate into the institution? How did they react to the political culture of Capitol Hill and how did they overcome institutional racism? Lastly, how did the experiences of these individuals compare to those of other newly enfranchised Americans?

Shared Experiences of Black Americans in Congress

In striking aspects, the history of blacks in Congress mirrors that of other groups that were new to the political system. Throughout African-American history in Congress, Members viewed themselves as “surrogate” representatives for the black community nationwide rather than just within the borders of their individual districts or states. George White of North Carolina (1897–1901) and Robert Elliott of South Carolina (1871–1874) first embodied these roles, serving as models for 20th-century black Members such as Oscar De Priest of Illinois (1929–1935), Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., of New York (1945–1971), and Shirley Chisholm of New York (1969–1983). Surrogate representation was not limited to black Members of Congress; nearly half a century after blacks entered Congress, woman Members, too, grappled with the added burdens of surrogate representation.

In 1917, women throughout the country looked to the first woman to serve in Congress, Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana, for legislative support. Indeed, Rankin received so many letters she was forced to hire additional secretaries to handle the workload. ...

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