African Americans in the United States Congress
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Since 1868, 122 African Americans have served in the United States Congress. This figure includes one member who was elected but never seated and five non-voting members of the House of Representatives who represented the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
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[edit] History of African American representation
[edit] The Reconstruction era
The right of African Americans to vote and to serve in the United States Congress was established after the Civil War by the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. The Thirteenth Amendment (ratified December 6, 1865), abolished slavery. The Fourteenth Amendment (ratified July 9, 1868) made all people born or naturalized in the United States citizens. The Fifteenth Amendment (ratified February 3, 1870) forbade the denial or abridgment of the right to vote on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, and gave Congress the power to enforce the law by appropriate legislation.
In 1866, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act and the Reconstruction Act, which dissolved all governments in the former Confederate states with the exception of Tennessee, and divided the South into five military districts to protect the rights of newly freed blacks. The act required that the former Confederate states ratify their constitutions conferring citizenship rights on blacks or forfeit their representation in Congress.
As a result of these measures, blacks acquired the right to vote across the Southern states. In several states (notably Mississippi and South Carolina), blacks were the majority of the population, and were able, by forming coalitions with pro-Union whites, to take control of the state legislatures, which at that time elected members of the United States Senate. In practice, however, only Mississippi elected black Senators. On February 25, 1870, Hiram Rhodes Revels became the first black member of the Senate.
Blacks were a majority of the population in many Congressional districts across the South. In 1870, Joseph Rainey of South Carolina became the first black member of the United States House of Representatives. Blacks were also elected from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and Virginia.
All of these Reconstruction era black senators and representatives were members of the Republican Party. To many blacks, the Republicans represented the party of Abraham Lincoln and of the Emancipation Proclamation, while the Southern Democrats represented the party of slavery and secession. Until 1876, the Republicans made genuine efforts to ensure that southern blacks were able to vote.
After the disputed Presidential election of 1876 between Democratic Samuel J. Tilden, governor of New York, and Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, governor of Ohio, an agreement between Democratic and Republican factions were negotiated, resulting in the Compromise of 1877. Under the Compromise, Democrats conceded the election to Hayes and promised to acknowledge the political rights of blacks; Republicans agreed to no longer intervene in southern affairs and promised to appropriate some federal money toward southern projects. With the southern states entirely "redeemed", Democrats gradually regained control of Southern legislatures and restricted the rights of blacks to vote.
By 1890, southern states began to disenfranchise black voters. Literacy tests, poll taxes, and white primaries prevented many blacks from voting. Southern states and local governments gradually adopted laws that segregated blacks. Finally, racial violence in the form of lynchings and race riots increased in frequency.
The last black Congressman elected from the South was George Henry White of North Carolina, elected in 1897. His term expired in 1901, the same year that the last president to have fought in the civil war, William McKinley, died. No blacks served in Congress for the next 28 years.
[edit] The modern era
The Great Migration of blacks from the South to northern cities such as New York and Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s began to produce black-majority Congressional districts. In 1928, Oscar De Priest won the 1st Congressional District of Illinois (the South Side of Chicago) as a Republican, becoming the first black Congressman of the modern era.
DePriest was also the last black Republican in the House for 56 years. The election of President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 led to a shift of black voting loyalties from Republican to Democrat as the Democrats became the party of economic advancement and (some time later) civil rights for black Americans. By the 1960s, virtually all black voters were Democrats. Two black Republicans have been elected since 1991, but both from white-majority districts.
Until 1992, most black House members were elected from inner-city districts in the North and West: Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York City, Newark, New Jersey, Philadelphia and St. Louis all elected at least one black member. The only southern cities to have black majority districts were Atlanta, Houston, Memphis and New Orleans. The only Southern rural area to have a black majority district was the Mississippi Delta area in Mississippi.
Following the 1990 census, the districts were needed to be redrawn due to the population shift of the country. However, there were various court decisions to have districts created with the intent of creating some where the majority of the population are African Americans. In order to comply with the courts, the districts were redrawn by a process called gerrymandering. Gerrymandering is when the districts are drawn, the end results an oddly shaped map to encompass a particular group. In this case, grotesquely-shaped districts were created to link widely separated black communities. Due to this method, several black members of the House were elected from Alabama, Florida, rural Georgia, rural Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia for the first time since Reconstruction. Additional black majority districts were also created in this way in California, Maryland and Texas, thus greatly increased the number of black-majority districts. The process was supported by both parties. The Democrats saw it as a way to connect to their black voters easily, which historically votes for the Democrats. The Republicans saw it as a way to win seats more easily, since many of the Democratic voters were moved from their districts. By the year 2000, this resulted in the Republicans holding a majority of white-majority House districts. However, this made the Democratic Party more clearly "black" in Southern states, thus further alienating white voters from the Democratic Party.
Since the 1940s, no state has had a majority of African-American residents. Because of this, an African American candidate cannot rely on the black vote alone to get elected. This means the candidate must reach out to other races and groups to become elected to public office, especially in the election for the United States Senate. Despite this issue, three African Americans have been elected to the Senate since that time: Edward W. Brooke, a liberal Republican from Massachusetts, and Carol Moseley Braun and Barack Obama, both Democrats from Illinois.
[edit] List of African Americans in the United States Congress
[edit] United States Senate
[edit] In the Reconstruction era
| Senator | Party | State | Term |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hiram Rhodes Revels | Republican | Mississippi | 1870-1871 |
| Blanche Kelso Bruce | Republican | Mississippi | 1875-1881 |
[edit] In the modern era
| Senator | Party | State | Term |
|---|---|---|---|
| Edward William Brooke | Republican | Massachusetts | 1967-1979 |
| Carol Moseley Braun | Democrat | Illinois | 1993-1999 |
| Barack Hussein Obama | Democrat | Illinois | 2005-present |
[edit] United States House of Representatives
[edit] In the Reconstruction era
| Representative | Party | State | Term |
|---|---|---|---|
| John Willis Menard[1] | Republican | Louisiana | 1868 |
| Joseph H. Rainey | Republican | South Carolina | 1870-1879 |
| Jefferson F. Long | Republican | Georgia | 1870-1871 |
| Robert C. De Large | Republican | South Carolina | 1871-1873 |
| Robert B. Elliott | Republican | South Carolina | 1871-1874 |
| Benjamin S. Turner | Republican | Alabama | 1871-1873 |
| Josiah T. Walls | Republican | Florida | 1871-1873, 1873-1875, 1875-1876 |
| Richard H. Cain | Republican | South Carolina | 1873-1875, 1877-1879 |
| John R. Lynch | Republican | Mississippi | 1873-1877, 1882-1883 |
| James T. Rapier | Republican | Alabama | 1873-1875 |
| Alonzo J. Ransier | Republican | South Carolina | 1873-1875 |
| Jeremiah Haralson | Republican | Alabama | 1875-1877 |
| John A. Hyman | Republican | North Carolina | 1875-1877 |
| Charles E. Nash | Republican | Louisiana | 1875-1877 |
| Robert Smalls | Republican | South Carolina | 1875-1879, 1882-1883, 1884-1887 |
| James E. O'Hara | Republican | North Carolina | 1883-1887 |
| Henry P. Cheatham | Republican | North Carolina | 1889-1893 |
| John Mercer Langston | Republican | Virginia | 1890-1891 |
| Thomas E. Miller | Republican | South Carolina | 1890-1891 |
| George W. Murray | Republican | South Carolina | 1893-1895, 1896-1897 |
| George Henry White | Republican | North Carolina | 1897-1901 |
[edit] In the modern era
| Representative | Party | State | Term |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oscar De Priest | Republican | Illinois | 1929-1935 |
| Arthur W. Mitchell | Democrat | Illinois | 1935-1943 |
| William L. Dawson | Democrat | Illinois | 1943-1970 |
| Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. | Democrat | New York | 1945-1967, 1967-1971 |
| Charles Diggs | Democrat | Michigan | 1955-1980 |
| Robert N.C. Nix, Sr. | Democrat | Pennsylvania | 1958-1979 |
| Augustus F. Hawkins | Democrat | California | 1963-1991 |
| John Conyers, Jr. | Democrat | Michigan | 1965-present |
| William L. Clay, Sr. | Democrat | Missouri | 1969-2001 |
| Louis Stokes | Democrat | Ohio | 1969-1999 |
| Shirley Chisholm | Democrat | New York | 1969-1983 |
| George W. Collins | Democrat | Illinois | 1970-1972 |
| Ronald V. Dellums | Democrat | California | 1971-1998 |
| Ralph Metcalfe | Democrat | Illinois | 1971-1978 |
| Parren Mitchell | Democrat | Maryland | 1971-1987 |
| Charles B. Rangel | Democrat | New York | 1971-present |
| Yvonne Brathwaite Burke | Democrat | California | 1973-1979 |
| Cardiss Collins | Democrat | Illinois | 1973-1997 |
| Barbara Jordan | Democrat | Texas | 1973-1979 |
| Andrew Young | Democrat | Georgia | 1973-1977 |
| Harold Ford, Sr. | Democrat | Tennessee | 1975-1997 |
| Julian C. Dixon | Democrat | California | 1979-2000 |
| William H. Gray, III | Democrat | Pennsylvania | 1979-1991 |
| Mickey Leland | Democrat | Texas | 1979-1989 |
| Bennett M. Stewart | Democrat | Illinois | 1979-1981 |
| George W. Crockett | Democrat | Michigan | 1980-1991 |
| Mervyn M. Dymally | Democrat | California | 1981-1993 |
| Gus Savage | Democrat | Illinois | 1981-1993 |
| Harold Washington | Democrat | Illinois | 1981-1983 |
| Katie Hall | Democrat | Indiana | 1982-1985 |
| Major Owens | Democrat | New York | 1983-2007 |
| Edolphus Towns | Democrat | New York | 1983-present |
| Alan Wheat | Democrat | Missouri | 1983-1995 |
| Charles Hayes | Democrat | Illinois | 1983-1993 |
| Alton R. Waldon, Jr. | Democrat | New York | 1986-1987 |
| Mike Espy | Democrat | Mississippi | 1987-1993 |
| Floyd Flake | Democrat | New York | 1987-1998 |
| John Lewis | Democrat | Georgia | 1987-present |
| Kweisi Mfume | Democrat | Maryland | 1987-1996 |
| Donald M. Payne | Democrat | New Jersey | 1989-present |
| Craig A. Washington | Democrat | Texas | 1989-1995 |
| Barbara-Rose Collins | Democrat | Michigan | 1991-1997 |
| Gary Franks | Republican | Connecticut | 1991-1997 |
| William J. Jefferson | Democrat | Louisiana | 1991-present |
| Maxine Waters | Democrat | California | 1991-present |
| Lucien E. Blackwell | Democrat | Pennsylvania | 1991-1995 |
| Eva Clayton | Democrat | North Carolina | 1992-2003 |
| Sanford Bishop | Democrat | Georgia | 1993-present |
| Corrine Brown | Democrat | Florida | 1993-present |
| Jim Clyburn | Democrat | South Carolina | 1993-present |
| Cleo Fields | Democrat | Louisiana | 1993-1997 |
| Alcee Hastings | Democrat | Florida | 1993-present |
| Earl Hilliard | Democrat | Alabama | 1993-2003 |
| Eddie Bernice Johnson | Democrat | Texas | 1993-present |
| Cynthia McKinney | Democrat | Georgia | 1993-2003, 2005-2007 |
| Carrie Meek | Democrat | Florida | 1993-2003 |
| Mel Reynolds | Democrat | Illinois | 1993-1995 |
| Bobby Rush | Democrat | Illinois | 1993-present |
| Robert C. Scott | Democrat | Virginia | 1993-present |
| Walter Tucker | Democrat | California | 1993-1995 |
| Mel Watt | Democrat | North Carolina | 1993-present |
| Albert Wynn | Democrat | Maryland | 1993-present |
| Bennie Thompson | Democrat | Mississippi | 1993-present |
| Chaka Fattah | Democrat | Pennsylvania | 1995-present |
| Sheila Jackson Lee | Democrat | Texas | 1995-present |
| J.C. Watts, Jr. | Republican | Oklahoma | 1995-2003 |
| Jesse Jackson, Jr. | Democrat | Illinois | 1995-present |
| Juanita Millender-McDonald | Democrat | California | 1996-2007 |
| Elijah Cummings | Democrat | Maryland | 1996-present |
| Julia Carson | Democrat | Indiana | 1997-present |
| Danny K. Davis | Democrat | Illinois | 1997-present |
| Harold Ford, Jr. | Democrat | Tennessee | 1997-2007 |
| Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick | Democrat | Michigan | 1997-present |
| Gregory W. Meeks | Democrat | New York | 1998-present |
| Barbara Lee | Democrat | California | 1998-present |
| Stephanie Tubbs Jones | Democrat | Ohio | 1999-present |
| William Lacy Clay, Jr. | Democrat | Missouri | 2001-present |
| Diane Watson | Democrat | California | 2001-present |
| Frank Ballance | Democrat | North Carolina | 2003-2004 |
| Artur Davis | Democrat | Alabama | 2003-present |
| Denise Majette | Democrat | Georgia | 2003-2005 |
| Kendrick Meek | Democrat | Florida | 2003-present |
| David Scott | Democrat | Georgia | 2003-present |
| G.K. Butterfield | Democrat | North Carolina | 2004-present |
| Emanuel Cleaver | Democrat | Missouri | 2005-present |
| Al Green | Democrat | Texas | 2005-present |
| Gwen Moore | Democrat | Wisconsin | 2005-present |
| Yvette Clarke | Democrat | New York | 2007-present |
| Keith Ellison | Democrat | Minnesota | 2007-present |
| Hank Johnson | Democrat | Georgia | 2007-present |
| Laura Richardson | Democrat | California | 2007-present |
[edit] Non-voting members
| Delegate | Party | State | Term |
|---|---|---|---|
| Walter E. Fauntroy | Democrat | District of Columbia | 1971-1991 |
| Melvin H. Evans | Republican | Virgin Islands | 1979-1981 |
| Eleanor Holmes Norton | Democrat | District of Columbia | 1991-present |
| Victor O. Frazer | Independent | Virgin Islands | 1995-1997 |
| Donna Christian-Christensen | Democrat | Virgin Islands | 1997-present |
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ John W. Menard was elected to fill an unexpired term, but was never seated in Congress due to a challenge of his election
[edit] References
- Bailey, Richard. Black Officeholders During the Reconstruction of Alabama, 1867-1878. New South Books, 2006. ISBN 1-58838-189-7. Available from author.
- Brown, Canter Jr. Florida's Black Public Officials, 1867-1924. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1998. ISBN 0585098093
- Foner, Eric. Freedom's Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders during Reconstruction. 1996. Revised. ISBN 0-8071-2082-0.
- Hahn, Steven. A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South From Slavery to the Great Migration. 2003. ISBN 0-674-01169-4
- Haskins, James. Distinguished African American Political and Governmental Leaders. Phoenix, Arizona: Oryx Press, 1999. ISBN 1573561266
- Middleton, Stephen. Black Congressmen During Reconstruction : A Documentary Sourcebook. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2002. ISBN 0313065128
- Rabinowitz, Howard N. Southern Black Leaders of the Reconstruction Era. University of Illinois Press, 1982. ISBN 0252009290
[edit] External links
- Congressional Research Service (CRS) Report "Black Members of the United States Congress: 1870-2005"
