African Americans in the United States Congress

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African Americans began serving in greater numbers in the United States Congress during the Reconstruction Era following the American Civil War after slaves were emancipated and granted citizenship rights. Freedmen gained political representation in the Southern United States for the first time. The Compromise of 1877 initiated the period that followed, known as Redemption among white southerners. Conservative, mostly white Democrats regained political power in state legislatures across the South and worked to restore white supremacy. State legislatures reduced voting by blacks by passing more restrictive electoral and voter registration rules, amending constitutions to the same ends from 1890–1910, and passing Jim Crow laws to establish racial segregation and restrict labor rights, movement and organizing by blacks. The Democratic Party essentially dominated the "Solid South" until the 1960s. As a result of the African-American Civil Rights Movement, the US Congress passed laws to end segregation and protect civil rights and voting rights.

During two waves of massive migration within the United States in the first half of the 20th century, more than 6 million African Americans moved from the South to northern and midwestern industrial cities. Some were elected to national political office from their new locations. During the Great Depression, many black voters switched allegiances from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party, in support of the New Deal economic, social network, and work policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration. This trend continued in the 1960s. At the same time, there was a different movement among whites in the South, who began to vote for Republican candidates for national and then state offices.

A total of 123 African Americans have served in the United States Congress, most in the United States House of Representatives. This includes five non-voting members of the House of Representatives, who represented the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. An additional House candidate was elected in 1868 but was not seated due to an election dispute.

Six African Americans have served in the U.S. Senate, two in the Republican Party from Mississippi during the Reconstruction Era and four more recently: three Democrats from Illinois (including Barack Obama) and one Republican from Massachusetts.

Contents 1 History of African American representation 1.1 Reconstruction and Redemption 1.2 Disfranchisement 2 The modern era 3 List of Blacks in the United States Congress 3.1 United States Senate 3.1.1 In Reconstruction era 3.1.2 In modern era 3.2 United States House of Representatives 3.2.1 In Reconstruction era 3.2.2 In modern era 4 See also 5 Notes 6 References 7 External links

[edit] History of African American representation

[edit] Reconstruction and Redemption

The right of blacks to vote and to serve in the United States Congress was established after the Civil War by 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. It divided the South into five military districts, where the military through the Freedmen's Bureau helped protect the rights and safety 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. By forming coalitions with pro-Union whites, Republicans took control of the state legislatures. At the time, state legislatures elected the members of the US Senate. During Reconstruction, only the state legislature of Mississippi elected a black senator. On February 25, 1870, Hiram Rhodes Revels was elected the first black member of the Senate, becoming also the first black member of the Congress.

Blacks were a majority of the population in many congressional districts across the South. In 1870, Joseph Rainey of South Carolina was elected to the US House of Representatives, becoming the first directly elected black member of Congress. Freedmen were elected to national office also 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. The Republicans represented the party of Abraham Lincoln and of emancipation. The Southern Democrats represented the party of planters, slavery and secession.

From 1868, southern elections were accompanied by increasing violence, especially in Louisiana, Mississippi and the Carolinas. In the mid-1870s, paramilitary groups such as the White League and Red Shirts worked openly to turn Republicans out of office and intimidate blacks from voting. This followed on the earlier years of secret vigilante action by the Ku Klux Klan against freedmen and allied whites.

After the disputed Presidential election of 1876 between Democratic Samuel J. Tilden, governor of New York, and Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, governor of Ohio, a national agreement between Democratic and Republican factions was 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 a portion of federal monies toward southern projects.

[edit] Disfranchisement

With the southern states "redeemed", Democrats gradually regained control of Southern legislatures. They proceeded to restrict the rights of most blacks and many poor whites to vote by imposing new requirements for poll taxes, subjective literacy tests, more strict residency requirements and other elements difficult for laborers to satisfy.

By the 1880s legislators increased restrictions on black voters through voter registration and election rules. Nonetheless, in 1888 John Mercer Langston, president of Virginia State University at Petersburg, was elected to the US Congress as the first African American from Virginia (and the last for nearly a century.)

From 1890 to 1908, starting with Mississippi, white Democrats passed new constitutions in ten Southern states with provisions that restricted voter registration and forced hundreds of thousands of people from registration rolls. These changes effectively prevented most blacks and many poor whites from voting. Many whites who were also illiterate were exempted from literacy tests by such strategies as the grandfather clause, basing eligibility on an ancestor's status as of 1866, for instance.

Southern state and local legislatures went on to pass Jim Crow laws that segregated transportation, public facilities and daily life. Finally, racial violence in the form of lynchings and race riots increased in frequency, reaching a peak in the last decade of the century.

The last black congressman elected from the South in the nineteenth century was George Henry White of North Carolina, elected in 1896 and re-elected in 1898. His term expired in 1901, the same year that William McKinley, the last president to have fought in the Civil War, died. No blacks served in Congress for the next 28 years, and none represented any southern state for the next 72 years.

[edit] The modern era

The Great Migration of blacks from the rural south to northern cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland from 1910 to 1940 began to produce black-majority Congressional districts in the North. Blacks could exercise their right to vote. In the two waves of the Great Migration, more than six and a half million blacks moved north and west and became highly urbanized.

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 Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 led to a shift of black voting loyalties from Republican to Democrat, as Roosevelt's New Deal programs offered economic relief to people suffering from the Great Depression. From 1940 to 1970, nearly five million blacks moved north and also west, especially to California, in the second wave of the Great Migration. By the 1960s, virtually all black voters were Democrats and most were voting in states outside the former Confederacy.

It was not until passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a culmination of years of effort by African Americans and allies in the Civil Rights Movement, that blacks within the Southern states recovered their ability to exercise their rights to vote and to live with full civil rights. Legal segregation ended. Accomplishing voter registration and redistricting to implement the sense of the law took more time.

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.

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. Following the 1990 census, Congressional districts needed to be redrawn due to the population shifts of the country. Various federal court decisions resulted in states' creating districts to provide for some where the majority of the population were African Americans, rather than gerrymandering to exclude black majorities.

Historically, both parties have used gerrymandering to gain political advantage, by drawing districts to favor their own party. In this case, some districts were created to link widely separated black communities. As a result, several black Democratic 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 increasing the number of black-majority districts.^{[citation needed]}

The creation of black-majority districts was a process supported by both parties. The Democrats saw it as a means of providing social justice, as well as connecting easily to black voters who had been voting Democratic for decades. The Republicans believed they gained by the change, as many of the Democratic voters were moved out of historically Republican-majority districts. Other demographic and cultural changes resulted in the Republicans' holding a majority of white-majority House districts by 2000.

Since the 1940s, when decades of the Great Migration resulted in millions of African Americans having migrated from the South, 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 be elected to the Senate. The candidate must reach out to other races and groups to become elected to the United States Senate and to many congressional seats. Four African Americans have served in the Senate since the 1940s: Edward W. Brooke, a Republican from Massachusetts; and Carol Moseley Braun, Barack Obama, and Roland Burris (appointed to a vacancy) – all Democrats from Illinois.

In the last several decades, numerous African Americans have created similar multi-racial coalitions to be elected as mayors of cities (including those without a black majority). (See List of first African-American mayors.)

[edit] List of Blacks in the United States Congress

[edit] United States Senate

[edit] In Reconstruction era

Senator	Party	State	Term	Lifespan	Former slave
Hiram Rhodes Revels	Republican	Mississippi	1870–1871	1827–1901	No
Blanche Bruce	Republican	Mississippi	1875–1881	1841–1898	Yes

[edit] In modern era

Senator	Party	State	Term	Lifespan
Edward William Brooke, III	Republican	Massachusetts	1967–1979	1919–
Carol Moseley Braun	Democrat	Illinois	1993–1999	1947–
Barack Obama	Democrat	Illinois	2005–2008	1961–
Roland Burris	Democrat	Illinois	2009 –	1937–

[edit] United States House of Representatives

[edit] In Reconstruction era

Representative	Party	State	Term	Lifespan	Former slave
John Willis Menard[1]	Republican	Louisiana	1868	1838–1893	No
Joseph Rainey	Republican	South Carolina	1870–1879	1832–1887	Yes
Jefferson F. Long	Republican	Georgia	1870–1871	1836–1901	Yes
Robert C. De Large	Republican	South Carolina	1871–1873	1842–1874	No
Robert B. Elliott	Republican	South Carolina	1871–1874	1842–1884	No
Benjamin S. Turner	Republican	Alabama	1871–1873	1825–1894	Yes
Josiah T. Walls	Republican	Florida	1871–1873, 1873–1876	1842–1905	Yes
Richard H. Cain	Republican	South Carolina	1873–1875, 1877–1879	1825–1887	No
John R. Lynch	Republican	Mississippi	1873–1877, 1882–1883	1847–1939	Yes
James T. Rapier	Republican	Alabama	1873–1875	1837–1883	No
Alonzo J. Ransier	Republican	South Carolina	1873–1875	1834–1882	No
Jeremiah Haralson	Republican	Alabama	1875–1877	1846–1916	Yes
John Adams Hyman	Republican	North Carolina	1875–1877	1840–1891	Yes
Charles E. Nash	Republican	Louisiana	1875–1877	1844–1913	No
Robert Smalls	Republican	South Carolina	1875–1879, 1882–1883, 1884–1887	1839–1915	Yes
James E. O'Hara	Republican	North Carolina	1883–1887	1844–1905	No
Henry P. Cheatham	Republican	North Carolina	1889–1893	1857–1935	Yes
John Mercer Langston	Republican	Virginia	1890–1891	1829–1897	No
Thomas E. Miller	Republican	South Carolina	1890–1891	1849–1938	No
George W. Murray	Republican	South Carolina	1893–1895, 1896–1897	1853–1926	Yes
George Henry White	Republican	North Carolina	1897–1901	1852–1918	No

[edit] In modern era

Representative	Party	State	Term	Lifespan
Oscar Stanton De Priest	Republican	Illinois	1929–1935	1871–1951
Arthur W. Mitchell	Democrat	Illinois	1935–1943	1883–1968
William L. Dawson	Democrat	Illinois	1943–1970	1886–1970
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.	Democrat	New York	1945–1967, 1967–1971	1908–1972
Charles Diggs	Democrat	Michigan	1955–1980	1922–1998
Robert N.C. Nix, Sr.	Democrat	Pennsylvania	1958–1979	1898–1987
Augustus F. Hawkins	Democrat	California	1963–1991	1907–2007
John Conyers	Democrat	Michigan	1965–present	1929–
Bill Clay	Democrat	Missouri	1969–2001	1931–
Louis Stokes	Democrat	Ohio	1969–1999	1925–
Shirley Chisholm	Democrat	New York	1969–1983	1924–2005
George W. Collins	Democrat	Illinois	1970–1972	1925–1972
Ron Dellums	Democrat	California	1971–1998	1935–
Ralph Metcalfe	Democrat	Illinois	1971–1978	1910–1978
Parren Mitchell	Democrat	Maryland	1971–1987	1922–2007
Charles B. Rangel	Democrat	New York	1971–present	1930–
Yvonne Brathwaite Burke	Democrat	California	1973–1979	1932–
Cardiss Collins	Democrat	Illinois	1973–1997	1931–
Barbara Jordan	Democrat	Texas	1973–1979	1936–1996
Andrew Young	Democrat	Georgia	1973–1977	1932–
Harold Ford, Sr.	Democrat	Tennessee	1975–1997	1945–
Julian C. Dixon	Democrat	California	1979–2000	1934–2000
William H. Gray, III	Democrat	Pennsylvania	1979–1991	1941–
Mickey Leland	Democrat	Texas	1979–1989	1944–1989
Bennett M. Stewart	Democrat	Illinois	1979–1981	1912–1988
George W. Crockett, Jr.	Democrat	Michigan	1980–1991	1909–1997
Mervyn M. Dymally	Democrat	California	1981–1993	1926–
Gus Savage	Democrat	Illinois	1981–1993	1925–
Harold Washington	Democrat	Illinois	1981–1983	1922–1987
Katie Hall	Democrat	Indiana	1982–1985	1938–
Major Owens	Democrat	New York	1983–2007	1936–
Ed Towns	Democrat	New York	1983–present	1934–
Alan Wheat	Democrat	Missouri	1983–1995	1951–
Charles Hayes	Democrat	Illinois	1983–1993	1918–1997
Alton R. Waldon, Jr.	Democrat	New York	1986–1987	1936–
Mike Espy	Democrat	Mississippi	1987–1993	1953–
Floyd H. Flake	Democrat	New York	1987–1998	1945–
John Lewis	Democrat	Georgia	1987–present	1940–
Kweisi Mfume	Democrat	Maryland	1987–1996	1948–
Donald M. Payne	Democrat	New Jersey	1989–present	1934–
Craig Anthony Washington	Democrat	Texas	1989–1995	1941–
Barbara-Rose Collins	Democrat	Michigan	1991–1997	1939–
Gary Franks	Republican	Connecticut	1991–1997	1953–
William J. Jefferson	Democrat	Louisiana	1991–2009	1947–
Maxine Waters	Democrat	California	1991–present	1938–
Lucien E. Blackwell	Democrat	Pennsylvania	1991–1995	1931–2003
Eva M. Clayton	Democrat	North Carolina	1992–2003	1934–
Sanford Bishop	Democrat	Georgia	1993–present	1947–
Corrine Brown	Democrat	Florida	1993–present	1946–
Jim Clyburn	Democrat	South Carolina	1993–present	1940–
Cleo Fields	Democrat	Louisiana	1993–1997	1962–
Alcee Hastings	Democrat	Florida	1993–present	1936–
Earl Hilliard	Democrat	Alabama	1993–2003	1942–
Eddie Bernice Johnson	Democrat	Texas	1993–present	1935–
Cynthia McKinney	Democrat	Georgia	1993–2003, 2005–2007	1955–
Carrie P. Meek	Democrat	Florida	1993–2003	1926–
Mel Reynolds	Democrat	Illinois	1993–1995	1952–
Bobby Rush	Democrat	Illinois	1993–present	1946–
Robert C. Scott	Democrat	Virginia	1993–present	1947–
Walter Tucker	Democrat	California	1993–1995	1957–
Mel Watt	Democrat	North Carolina	1993–present	1945–
Albert Wynn	Democrat	Maryland	1993–2008	1951–
Bennie Thompson	Democrat	Mississippi	1993–present	1948–
Chaka Fattah	Democrat	Pennsylvania	1995–present	1956–
Sheila Jackson-Lee	Democrat	Texas	1995–present	1950–
J. C. Watts	Republican	Oklahoma	1995–2003	1957–
Jesse Jackson, Jr.	Democrat	Illinois	1995–present	1965–
Juanita Millender-McDonald	Democrat	California	1996–2007	1938–2007
Elijah Cummings	Democrat	Maryland	1996–present	1951–
Julia Carson	Democrat	Indiana	1997–2007	1938–2007
Danny K. Davis	Democrat	Illinois	1997–present	1941–
Harold Ford, Jr.	Democrat	Tennessee	1997–2007	1970–
Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick	Democrat	Michigan	1997–present	1945–
Gregory W. Meeks	Democrat	New York	1998–present	1953–
Barbara Lee	Democrat	California	1998–present	1946–
Stephanie Tubbs Jones	Democrat	Ohio	1999–2008	1949–2008
William Lacy Clay, Jr.	Democrat	Missouri	2001–present	1956–
Diane Watson	Democrat	California	2001–present	1933–
Frank Ballance	Democrat	North Carolina	2003–2004	1942–
Artur Davis	Democrat	Alabama	2003–present	1967–
Denise Majette	Democrat	Georgia	2003–2005	1955–
Kendrick Meek	Democrat	Florida	2003–present	1966–
David Scott	Democrat	Georgia	2003–present	1946–
G. K. Butterfield	Democrat	North Carolina	2004–present	1947–
Emanuel Cleaver	Democrat	Missouri	2005–present	1944–
Al Green	Democrat	Texas	2005–present	1947–
Gwen Moore	Democrat	Wisconsin	2005–present	1951–
Yvette D. Clarke	Democrat	New York	2007–present	1964–
Keith Ellison	Democrat	Minnesota	2007–present	1963–
Hank Johnson	Democrat	Georgia	2007–present	1954–
Laura Richardson	Democrat	California	2007–present	1962–
André Carson	Democrat	Indiana	2008–present	1974–
Donna Edwards	Democrat	Maryland	2008–present	1958–
Marcia Fudge	Democrat	Ohio	2008–present	1952–

Delegate	Party	State	Term	Lifespan
Walter E. Fauntroy	Democrat	District of Columbia	1971–1991	1933–
Melvin H. Evans	Republican	Virgin Islands	1979–1981	1917–1984
Eleanor Holmes Norton	Democrat	District of Columbia	1991–present	1937–
Victor O. Frazer	Independent	Virgin Islands	1995–1997	1943–
Donna Christian-Christensen	Democrat	Virgin Islands	1997–present	1945–

[edit] See also

• Congressional Black Caucus

[edit] Notes

[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
• Clay, William L. Just Permanent Interests Black Americans in Congress, 1870–1991. Amistad Press, 1992. ISBN 1567430007
• Dray, Philip. Capitol Men the Epic Story of Reconstruction Through the Lives of the First Black Congressmen. Houghton Mifflin Co, 2008. ISBN 9780618563708
• Foner, Eric. Freedom's Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders during Reconstruction. 1996. Revised. ISBN 0-8071-2082-0.
• Freedman, Eric. African Americans in Congress: A Documentary History. CQ Press, 2007. ISBN 0872893855
• Gill, LaVerne McCain. African American Women in Congress Forming and Transforming History. Rutgers University Press, 1997. ISBN 0813523532
• 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

• Black Americans in Congress, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives
• BlackHistoryDaily.com – African Americans in Government
• Congressional Research Service (CRS) Report "Black Members of the United States Congress: 1870–2005"

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