Showing posts with label first black congressman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label first black congressman. Show all posts

Friday, February 04, 2022

First Black congressman honored at U.S. Capitol Building

Rep. Joseph H. Rainey, born into slavery in 1832, was honored Thursday for being the first Black member of the House by formally having a room in the Capitol named after him.

No. 3 House Democratic leader James Clyburn, Rainey's great-granddaughter Lorna Rainey and others used the event to say the battle for racial justice and voting rights that Joseph Rainey championed must continue.

“I have children. I have grandchildren," said Clyburn, who like Rainey did represents a district in South Carolina. “I want them to feel as proud of this country as I am."

Clyburn noted that eight African Americans were elected to the House from his home state during the 19th Century but said, “The problem is there's 95 years between No. 8 and No. 9," who is Clyburn himself, first elected in 1992. “Anything that's happened before can happen again."

“If Joseph Rainey could accomplish so much during his time, then certainly you can be the ones to get the people’s work done," his great-granddaughter told the small audience, which included lawmakers. “As we honor this man, please let us remember what he stood for, what he put his life in danger for and why his legacy endures today."

The brief event featured speeches delivered beside a portrait of Rainey, sitting with legs crossed in the Capitol and sporting prominent mutton-chop sideburns and a dark suit.

The modest room now bearing Rainey's name is on the first floor of the Capitol and was used by the House Committee on Indian Affairs, on which he served. A plaque in his honor was placed outside the room.

Thursday, May 04, 2017

Black members of congress respond to Republican healthcare bill


Today Republicans passed a healthcare bill in the House of Representatives with many not having even read it, and it not being scored by the Congressional Budget Office. Not many House Democrats were happy about it and black members of the House such as John Lewis and Bonnie Watson Coleman took to Twitter to vent about it. Read those post below.




















Monday, February 15, 2016

Joseph Hayne Rainey: First African American to serve in the United States House of Representatives

Joseph Hayne Rainey (June 21, 1832 – August 1, 1887) was an American politician. He was the first African American to serve in the United States House of Representatives, the second black person to serve in the United States Congress (U.S. Senator Hiram Revels was the first), and the first black presiding officer of the House of Representatives. Born into slavery in South Carolina, he was freed in the 1840s by his father purchasing the freedom of his entire family and himself. Revels and Rainey were both members of the Republican Party.

In 1870, Rainey was elected to the State Senate of South Carolina and became chair of the Finance Committee. He served only a short time as that year he won a special election as a Republican to fill a vacancy in the Forty-first Congress of the United States. This vacancy had been created when the House refused to seat Benjamin F. Whittemore, the incumbent. He had been censured by the House for corruption but re-elected.

Rainey was seated December 12, 1870 and was re-elected to Congress, serving a total of four terms. Serving until March 3, 1879, he established a record of length of service for a black Congressman that was not surpassed until that of William L. Dawson of Chicago in the 1950s. He supported legislation that became known as the Enforcement Acts, to suppress the violent activities of the Ku Klux Klan.