Available as a podcast. Find it where you listen to podcasts. Next on American History tvs american artifacts, we visit the Canon House Office building to see artifacts that tell the story of africanamericans in congress in the 20th century. Im sarah elliott, the curator at the house of representatives. And im matt rauz nwasniewsk. We want to talk about africanamerican representation in the 20th century, and we have a lot of artifacts from the house collection that have to do with that and a lot of history to cover. And the last africanamerican sort of to be elected in the 19th century leaves in 1901, george white of north carolina, and then its a long time before another africanamerican comes into the house. Thats is Oscar Depriest from illinois. We have a couple really rare artifacts from Oscar Depriest from the 1920s and 30s, but before i launch into them because i love them so much, matt, tell us a little bit about oscar and how he got into congress. So theres a long period, almost three decades after George Henry White leaves congress where theres no africanamericans who serve in either the house or the senate. And that has everything to do with the jim crow laws that go on the books in the south. And the way that that changes over time during those decades, theres 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. And that begins, depending on which historian you talk to, 1890s and runs really through world war ii. It picks up momentum around world war i, as theres a need in the north to fill industrial jobs and jobs that had been occupied by men who have now gone off to fight in the war. And you see tens of thousands of africanamericans moving northward for the first time, out of the rural south, out of agricultural jobs to industrial jobs in chicago, st. Louis, cleveland, pittsburgh, new york. And over time, the africanamerican population in those 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. He actually is born in the south. He and his family are part of a group called the exadusters who who move from the midwest to kansas. He goes to grade school and high school in salina, canc. He finds his way to chicago in the 1890s and moves through the political system. He becomes a chicago city councilman in the mid19 teens, and his career has some peaks and valleys. By the 1920s, hes part of the republican political machine in chicago as an alderman, a ward alderman. And in 1928, when the sitting congressman from chicago, very powerful republican named martin madden, who is on the appropriations committee, passes away midcongress, in the fall elections, depriest runs for the seat, and he wins. So in 1929, he comes to the house of representatives. You know, one of my favorite things about Oscar Depriests career is this little tiny button that we have in the collection that is from his career. Its a tiny its really small, and it says depriest for congress with a picture of him, and one of the things i love most about it is that theyre very rare. There probably werent that many of them around niltinitially, a very few survive. I think i have only seen one other, maybe two others in existence. When you think about this tiny button won on someones lapel, looking like any other button, this actually represents a revolution. The attempt to elect an africanamerican to congress for the first time in decades. So just this presence of this little 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 it has come back to the place that whoever owned this wanted depriest to end up, which was the u. S. Congress. And when he got here, he then found a lot of a lot he was interested in, a lot that came to him that perhaps he didnt ask for in the way of how he was received, the issues he handled, all kinds of stuff like that. And he does end up being sort of the surrogate representative for africanamericans in general, right . Absolutely. And it must have been an interesting shift for him because he had come up through the chicago political machine, and while he had advocated for his constituency in chicago, which was largely africanamerican, south side of chicago, you didnt get the sense that he really embraced this role as a representative of africanamericans generally until he comes to congress, and a couple of things happen right off the bat almost immediately that really force him to take a very public role for africanamerican political rights. He is symbolically, and in fact, the first africanamerican to serve in a long time. But when he comes to congress, theres a bit of a firestorm in the press. It was tradition for the first lady, in this case, lou hoover, herbert hoovers wife, to have a tea for all the congressional wives, spouses. Nowadays, we would say but wives back in the late 1920s, and that caused consternation because there were several Southern States that objected to the fact that the wives of their members of Congress Might actually have to have tea in the white house with an africanamerican woman. There were even Southern States that had their legislatures pass resolutions asking hoover to make sure that this didnt happen. What hoover did was to divide the tea party into a couple different sessions. And the one that jesse depriest, oscars wife, was invited to, was a very carefully preselected small group of congresswomen who she knew wouldnt object. This got out there in the press, and depriest, Oscar Depriest, just pilloried the Southern State legislatures that had spoken up. And this is the first kind of road block that he runs into. Another one happens here in the house, right . About where his office is located. Yes. You know, people dont want their offices to be their office to be next to him. Members say i will not serve, you know, they dont want to be serving with an africanamerican. And when we were doing some research recently on the history of who had what office in the different house office buildings, in the Canon House Office building, then just known as the house office building, it turned out that the place that 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, did they choose that particular space to rip out and change for him because it could happen at the last minute and perhaps it would just sort of side step people objecting in advance because they wouldnt think anybody was going to be next them, just the bathroom was next door, but its definitely these things that bubble up from lots of primary Source Research that our offices do where we learn these stories behind the stories. One other episode happens late in depriests 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 could get lunch in an adjoining space. And depriest objected to this, unsurprisingly, and defended his secretary, his chief of staff. And went after the chairman of what was then called the accounts committee in the house. Lindsey warren, north carolina, who had dictated that the restaurant needed to be segregated. And he comes onto the house floor, and the press pays a lot of attention to this. And his line essentially is, if we cant have freedom, if we cant have equality under the dome of the capitol, then where in gods name are we going to get it . And the house creates a special committee to investigate segregation in the restaurant, but the issue dies in that committee. And the restaurant remains segregated well into the 20th century. Its interesting because that kind of brings up for me thinking about not just the experience of africanamerican members in the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century but whats the experience of africanamerican staff there. And the re raunt is a really good example because in the 19th century, the privilege and responsibility and job of running the house restaurant was given as a concession, was somebody could have almost like the franchise, i guess, of running that. And in the 1860s, after the civil war is over, that is awarded to a famous africanamerican restauranter, George Downing, and hes up in newport, famous as a catering up there, and he comes down to run that restaurant, and his experience really is as someone who is a businessman operating in that space, and in the reconstruction period, there are some salient examples of africanamericans being sort of the pioneers of being on staff, and in the same way that the reconstruction period in africanamerican members is, there are very few in number, but they manage to sort of being in positions that have not been created for them, but the positions that do have some weight and purpose in the house. And some symbolic importance to the fact that these individuals were put in those positions. One of them was william smith, who was appointed the house librarian in the 1880s. An appointed position. Its one of the most prominent positions in the institution, and he is at that point one of the highest ranking africanamericans in the federal government. And he had been brought along slowly. He first came to the house and worked in the library during the civil war. And he had been promoted by radical republicans, like senator sumner, had helped push him along in his career. Another one who is appointed during reconstruction is the first africanamerican page to serve in the house on the floor, alfred q. Powell of manchester, virginia, just south, across the james from richmond. And hes appointed by a member who is part of the reconstructed virginia government. Hes a carpetbagger from the north, a former union officer. And he serves in a district that represents richmond and its environs. And hes appointed in 1871. We know he serves about a year and a half in the house, and hes also the other connection there is that he is the great grand nephew of john mercer langston, who was in washington at that point. Right. I think he was serving as the dean or president of Howard University at the time and later hes going to be in congress, too. So theres a sort of network, this interesting network of people who know other people who are able to move pieces around and make things happen. And then, we get from George Downing in the 1860s running the house restaurant right up to the chief of staff for Oscar Depriest being refused service in the house. And Oscar Depriest then sort of later in his career, he also takes on, he champions these issues that need championing and arent necessarily specifically related to his constituency, and he is a National Figure. And another object we have in the house collection that relates to that is a program from a speech hes giving in dayton, ohio, very far from chicago. It doesnt even say what hes going to talk about. Hes just sort of speaking. And it happens at the local junior high school. Theres a band. And theres all kind of terrific h hoha around the whole thing. Hes presented as a statesman who is important to the africanamerican nationally including in dayton. Towards the end of his career and probably im imagining earlier in his congressional career also, is part of that whole notion of surrogate representation. In fact, youre representing people beyond the borders of your district or your state. Youre a National Figure. Yeah. But then, we dont really think of Oscar Depriest now that much as a National Figure in national history. Of course, we do, but many people dont. But theres some who sort of soon thereafter, in the late 1940s, start to arrive who do become National Figures. Yeah, depriest leaves congress in 1935. Hes defeated for reelection, actually by another africanamerican from chicago. Who is a democrat. Arthur mitchell, and hes the first africanamerican elected as a democrat to congress. And what you begin see in that decade of the 1930s into the 1940s, and you see it very clearly in this chicago district that depriest is from, is that theres a shift in africanamerican allegiance away from the republican party, the party of lincoln, the party of reconstruction, to the Democratic Party during the new deal. And part of that is, you know, it has to do with the fact that africanamericans are recruited by democratic city leaders. Theres the promise of greater political participation. Which is that promise that pulled africanamericans out of the south during the great migration to begin with. And also, the fact that there is they have a slightly greater voice in that new Deal Coalition that Franklin Roosevelt puts together. So they begin to be drawn towards the Democratic Party. Mitchell is the embodiment of that. Mitchell, however, is completely the opposite of depriest. He chooses not to be a surrogate representative. He downplays the fact that hes an africanamerican in congress. He doesnt want to push black issues, per se, as he told the press on numerous occasions. He serves for a couple terms, and hes replaced by another member named william dawson, who is one of the longest serving africanamericans in house history. Dawson, again, another individual who started off as a republican and moved to the Democratic Party in chicago. And hes important because by the late 1940s, he chairs the committee that will become what we now call oversight and government reform. It was Government Operations back in the 1940s. And he chairs that committee, really, with the exception of a single term, for the rest of his career. So for two decades. But hes another member who comes into the institution and unlike depriest, who challenges things frontally, he feels like he can make changes by fitting into the institution and trying to affect change from his position of power as a Committee Chairman. And you know, one of the interesting things about him is in addition to being Committee Chair and part of that institutional approach to things, he then has a portrait of himself as many Committee Chairman did, created. And its one of the first portraits of an africanamerican in the u. S. Congress. Which really raises it to a very elevated place in our estimation. William dawsons portrait, its the first africanamerican Committee Chairman portrait in the house collection, and hes the first africanamerican Committee Chair of a Standing Committee of the house. And its a wonderful portrait in that it really represents him as the embadeodiment of a committe chair. Its not one where there are sort of lots of other elements to give you clues to who he is. Its about the stature of the man. Hes standing alone. Hes standing in a very conservative blue suit. He looks like a member of congress. Thats something thats really important, that part of this is, part of his approach and many peoples approach to working in congress as members, is to be part of this important institution. And he uses that and becomes an incredibly longserving Committee Chair. So william dawson, as chairman of the Government Operations, was a member who had a legislative style that was very much a workhorse style. He was behind the scenes. He didnt want to be in the media. Very quiet, determined, but very low key. He contrasts his style of legislating, contrasts markedly with the fellow who is here, represented here in these objects. Well, this is a wonderful book we have, its by Adam Clayton Powell, one of my favorite members of gres. This was published, marching blacks. Its published right after hes elected and beginning to serve in 1945, and Adam Clayton Powell was definitely a man ready with a program for progress. And is 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, is a recording he made called keep the faith, baby. Its a series of speaking meditations on a number of different issues. These really sort of bookend his career, which is very long, and he is no william dawson. He has a very different approach to how to do things. All human beings, black and white, rich and poor, equal in the sight of god, keep your faith in the life of your fellow man, even though he abuses you. When he abuses you, he makes himself a lesser man. Great man once said love your enemies, bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you, and pray, pray, pray, pray, pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. Keep your faith. Up through the 1970s, powell was the person who kind of embodied civil rights in the house, right . Civil rights in congress. Hes elected in 1944. He and dawson are the only two members of congress for a number of congresses until the early 1950s, and two very contrasting styles, whereas dawson is very behind the scenes, powell is out front, talking to the media, pushing against segregation practices in the house restaurant. In the press galleries in terms of accreditation of africanamerican reporters, hes constantly pushing the envelope. Theres a great story we covered in our book black americans in congress where sam rayburn,