Transcripts For CSPAN3 American Artifacts History Of African

We know he did and he was attempting to put a marker down. This wont be forgotten and will come back. In the center we have the two africanamerican to served in the senate. By the muchrounded larger numbers of African Americans who served in the house. There is joseph rainey, the first africanamerican in the house. And it takes it all the way around to all of them who were there. I find it so poignant in that, when this was printed no one knew how long would it be. Did they think 20 years would be a long time . Did they think it would be just a moment. What did happen in this print it looks terribly damaged, like it has had a hard life. As if at some point someone took this and pasted it on probably a wall. Underneath that is wallpaper. Underneath the print and on top of the board is wallpaper. It was perhaps painted on someones wall. In sort of recognition of the things that happened. We acquired it in d. C. It may have never left the nations capital, unlike black representation that was present. Next on American History tvs american artifacts. We met we visit the Office Building to the artifacts that tell the story of africanamericans in congress in the 20th century. Farar i am the curator at the u. S. House of representatives. Matthew i am a historian at the u. S. House of representatives. Farar we want to talk to about the history of africanamerican representation in the 20th century. We have a lot of artifacts from the house collection that have last africanamerican to be elected in the 19th century leaves in 19 oh one, george white of north carolina, and then it is a long time before another African American comes into the house. That is oscar to breeze from illinois. We have a couple of rare artifacts from the 1920s and 30s, but before i launch into and howll us about him he got into congress. There is a long time, almost three decades after George Henry Wright leaves where there is no africanamerican to serve in the senate stop that has everything to do with the jim crow laws that go on the books in the south. The way that changes over time is there is a critical thing going on in the south where africanamericans begin to leave the south and move northward as part of a multidecade movement that would later be called the great migration. , depending on which historian you talk to, 1890s, and runs through world war ii. It picks up momentum around need war i as there is a in the north to fill industrial ans and jobs that have occupied by men who have gone off to fight in the war. You see tens of thousands of africanamericans moving northward for the first time, out of the rural south, out of agricultural jobs, to jobs in chicago, st. Louis, cleveland, pittsburgh, new york, and over time, the africanamerican population in the cities increases and the africanamericans in those cities are gradually recruited by the Political Parties and Oscar Depriest is a perfect example of that process. South and he the and his family are part of a group called the x investors who moved to the midwest to kansas. He goes to grade school and high school, but he finds his way to chicago in the 1890s and moves up through the political system. He becomes a chicago city councilman in the mid19 teens and his career has some peaks and valleys. Partby the 1920s, he is of the republican political machine in chicago as an alderman. The sittingn congressman from chicago, a very powerful republican a martin madman on the Appropriations Committee passes away in the fall elections, depriest runs for the seat and wins. Comes to the house of representatives. One of my favorite things about his career is this little tiny button we have in the collection that is from his career. Congressepriest for and one of the things i love most about it is they are very rare. There probably were not that very fewhem around and survive. I think i have only seen one or two others in existence. But if you think about this tiny little button worn on someones lapel, looking for all the world like any other button, this represents a revolution. The attempt to elect an africanamerican to congress for the first time in decades. This inch and a quarter diameter piece of metal would have been a real statement on the part of whoever was wearing it and i love that it has survived and come back to the place that whoever owned it wanted it to end up. He found a lote, he was interested in, a lot that came to him that he perhaps did not ask for in the way of how he was received, the way he was updled, and he does end being handed the surrogate. It must have been an interesting shift because he had come up through the political machine and while he advocated for his constituency in chicago, which was largely africanamerican, you did not get the sense he really embraced this role as a representative of africanamericans until he comes to congress and a couple of things happen right off the bat almost immediately, that really a he is, take symbolically the first africanamerican to serve for a long time, but when he comes to congress, there is a bit of a firestorm in the press. It was tradition for the first lady, herbert hoovers wife to have tea for all the congressional wives, spouses, nowadays, we would say, but wives in the late 1920s. Caused consternation because there were several Southern States that a acted to the fact the lives of their members of Congress Might have to have tea in the white house with an africanamerican woman. States hadsouthern their legislatures passed resolutions to make sure this did not happen, what hoover did party intode the tea a couple of different sessions, and the one Jesse Depriest was a very carefully, preselected small group of congresswoman who she knew would not object. This got out in the pressed and Oscar Depriest pilloried the Southern State legislatures that had spoken up. Roadblock heirst runs into. Another one happens in the house about where his office is located. That want their office to be next to him, they say i will not serve, i wont serve with an African American, we were doing some research recently on the history of who had what office in the different Office Buildings. Out the place Oscar Depriest was assigned was a bathroom and they ripped out the plumbing and turned it into an office for him. One has to wonder, do they did they choose that because it happened at the last minute and it would sidestep people objecting in advance . They thought the bathroom was next door. Its definitely these things that bubble up from primary Source Research that our offices do where we learn the stories behind the stories. One other episode happens late in his career when a staffer, essentially his chief of staff and a Family Member of the chief of staff are asked to leave the house restaurant and move to a segregated room where africanamericans can get lunch in an adjoining space. He objected to this, unsurprisingly, and defended his secretary chief of staff and went after the chairman of what was then called the accounts committee in the house, lindsay lorn of north carolina, who did hated the restaurant needed to be segregated. House floorto the and the press pays a lot of attention to this. His line it essentially is if we cant have a quality under the dome of the capitol, then where in gods name are we going to get it . The house creates a special committee to investigate , but the issue dies in the committee and the restaurant remained segregated well into the 20th century. Its interesting because it brings up not just the experience of africanamerican members in the 19th century, but the experience of africanamerican staff and the restaurant is a good example because in the 19th century, the privilege and responsibility of running the house restaurant was given as a concession, some but he could have almost the franchise of running that. In the 1860s, after the civil war is over, its awarded to a favor a famous africanamerican restaurant tour. Hes very famous. He comes down to run the restaurant and his experience is as someone who is a businessman operating in that space. In reconstruction, there are some salient examples of pioneersmericans being on staff in the same way reconstruction, there very few to be in but manage positions that have not been created but do have some weight and purpose in the house. Importance symbolic in fact, one of them was william , who was appointed the house librarian in the 1880s. And appointed position, one of the most prominent positions in the institution and he is at that point, one of the highestranking africanamericans in federal government. He had been brought along slowly. He came to the house and worked in the library during the civil war and had been promoted by radical republicans like senator sumner. One appointed during reconstruction is the first africanamerican page two serve , just south across the james from richmond and he is appointed by a member whose part of the reconstructed virginia government, a carpetbagger, former union officer, and he serves in a district that represents richmond and its environment and hes appointed in 1871. He serves about a year and a half in house and he is also the other connection is hes a great grandnephew of John Mercer Langston who was in washington. He was serving as the dean or president of Howard University and later he will be in congress, so there is a network of people who know other people and who are able to move pieces around and make things happen. Downingget from george running the house restaurant right up to the chief of staff being refused service inhouse. He championst, these issues that need does theng and he become a National Figure and another object we have that relates to that is a program from a speech he is giving in dayton, ohio, very far from chicago. He doesnt even say what hes going to talk about. Hes just speaking and that happened at the local junior high school. And all kinds of terrific who ha around the entire thing and hes being presented as a statement who is important to the africanamerican community. Toward the end of his career, probably earlier in his career, is part of the notion of surrogate representation. The fact you are representing people beyond the borders of your district or state. You are a National Figure. Of oscart inc. Depriest now as much of a National Figure we do, but many people dont, but in the late 1940s, many people do start to arrive and become National Figures. He leaves congress in 1935. Hes defeated by another africanamerican from chicago, a democrat, arthur michelle. Hes the first arthur mitchell. And what you begin to see in that decade of the 1930s into the 1940s, and you see it very shift ins a africanamerican allegiance away from the Republican Party of the party of lincoln to the Democratic Party during the new deal. It has to do with the fact that africanamericans are recruited by democratic city leaders. There is the promise of greater whichcal participation, is the promise that pulled africanamericans out of the fact to begin with and the that they have a slightly greater voice in that new Deal Coalition Franklin Roosevelt puts together, so they begin to be drawn toward the Democratic Party. Mitchell is the embodiment of that. Mitchell is the complete opposite of depriest and chooses not to be a surrogate representative and downplays the fact hes an African American congress. Blacks not want to push issues per se as he told the press on numerous occasions. He serves were a couple of terms and is replaced by a member named William Dawson who is one of the longestserving African Americans in house history. Another individual who started as a republican and moved to the Democratic Party in chicago and hes important because by the late 1940s, he chairs the whatttee that will become we call oversight in government reform. It was Government Operations in the 1940s. For thes that committee rest of his career. Hes another member who comes into the institution, and unlike depriest to challenge his things, he feels like he can make changes by fitting into the institution and trying to affect change from his position of power. One of the interesting things is in addition to being Committee Chair and being part ,f that institutional approach he has a portrait of himself as the did and its one of first portraits of an African American in the u. S. Congress which raises it to an elevated place in our estimation. Theiam dawsons portrait is first africanamerican many chairman portrait and this the first chair of a Standing Committee inhouse. Its a wonderful portrait in that it represents him as the embodiment of a Committee Chair. Its not one where there are other elements to give you clues as to who he is. Its about the stature of the man. He is standing alone, he is in a very conservative blue suit. He looks like a member of congress. That is something that is really important. Part of this is, his approach and many peoples approach to working in congress as members, is to be part of this important institution. He uses that and becomes an incredibly long serving Committee Chair. Matt so, William Dawson as chairman of Government Operations was a member who had a legislative style that was a workhorse style. He was behind the scenes and did not want to be in the media. Very quiet. Determined but very lowkey. He contrasts his style of legislating markedly with the fellow who is represented here with these objects. Farar this is a wonderful book we have. This is by adam Clayton Powell. It was published right after he is elected in 1944. And he begins to serve in 1945. Adam Clayton Powell was definitely a man ready with a program for progress. And ready to tell you all about it. He was the pastor of a Baptist Church in harlem. He represented a harlem district. And he served a very long time in congress. This is from the beginning of his congressional career. This later moving from the paper form to wax, it is a recording he made. It is called, keep the faith. It is a series of speaking meditations on a number of different issues. These kind of book end his career, which is very long. He is no William Dawson. He has a different approach to how to do things. All human beings, blackandwhite, rich and poor, equal in the sight of god. Keep your faith and the life of your fellow man even though he abuses you. When he abuses you, he makes himself a lesser man. A great man once said, love your enemies. Blessed them that curse you. Pray. Pray. Pray for them. Keep your faith. Matt through the 1970s, he was the person who kind of embodied civil rights in the house. Civil rights in congress. Hes elected in 1944. He and dawson are the only two members of congress for a number of congresses in the early 1950s. Two very contrasting styles whereas dawson is behind the scenes and powell is out front talking to the media, pushing against segregation practices in the house restaurant. He is constantly pushing the envelope. There is a great story that we have covered in our book of black americans in congress where sam rayburn, the revered long time speaker of the house from texas has a conversation with powell when he first comes in and the gist of it is freshman listen quietly and learn. Dont go causing a ruckus. Well, you can imagine this new yorker from harlem listening to the texan explain to him the ways of the house and he looked at him and said, mr. Speaker, i have a bomb in both hands and am ready to hurl them. But he had a great relationship with rayburn. According to rayburns account afterwards. But he is constantly pressing the envelope in the house. He gets onto the education labor committee, a very influential committee. Particularly by the 1960s when we go through a reform period during the kennedy and johnson administrations, and particularly at the start of the Great Society with lyndon johnson. He is chairman of the committee and its pushes through 50 different measures related to education reforms. So a very substantive legislator in addition to being a show horse, very flamboyant. Farar it is interesting, those two aspects. There is a part where he is known as mr. Civil rights and he is very willing to champion civil rights on all levels, both legislatively and into the life of the house. I remember you telling me once about even something as minor as sitting in the House Chamber and where you sit in the House Chamber, that came up for him. Matt there is another story that one of his biographers tells. Seating in the House Chamber is open as long as you respect the party block tradition. Democrats, this speaker, the republicans to the left. But when powell came in, there was a prominent southern number member who told the press, this man was a chairman of a committee and said, i refuse to sit next to a black man on the house floor. So what powell did was follow him around on the floor and he sat next to him anytime he sat down. He forced the Senior Member to move around the chamber which a lot of people took note of. Including the press. Afterwards, powell told the reporte