Bertiep Bowman News Today

He was the longest-serving Black staff member in the history of the U.S. Congress, rising to a senior role with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In an unlikely success story, he rose from poverty in the segregated South to build relationships with powerful politicians.

Bertie Bowman, the son of South Carolina sharecroppers who arrived at the U.S. Capitol in 1944 as a 13-year-old runaway, got a $2-a-week job sweeping the building’s steps, and then became the longest-serving African American congressional aide in history, died Oct. 25. He was 92.

The 13-year-old runaway would eventually become the longest-serving African American congressional aide in history.

Bertie Bowman, the son of South Carolina sharecroppers who arrived at the U.S. Capitol in 1944 as a 13-year-old runaway, got a $2-a-week job sweeping the buildings steps, and then