We visit the Health Office building to see artifacts that tell the story of africanamericans in congress in the 20th century. I am the curator at the u. S. House of representatives. I am the historian. We wanted to talk about the history of africanamerican representation in the 20th century. We have a lot of artifacts from house collections that has to do with that. And a lot of history to cover. The last africanamerican to be elected in the 19th century leaves in 1901. George white of north carolina. Then it is a long time before another africanamerican comes into the house and that is oscar dupree from illinois. We had a couple of rare artifacts from him from the 1920s and 1930s. Before i launch into them, matt, tell us about oscar dupree. Matt almost three decades after George Henry White leaves congress when there are no africanamerican to serve in the house or senate. That has everything to do with the jim crow laws that go on the books in the south. The way that that changes over time during those decades and that there is a critical thing going on in the south where African Americans begin to leave the south and move northward as part of a multidecade movement that would later be called the great migration. That begins on which to store and you talk to and 1890s and runs through world war ii. It picks up momentum around world war i as there is a need in the north to fill industrial jobs and jobs that have been occupied by men who are going off to war. You see tens of thousands of africanamericans moving northward for the first time out of the rural south to industrial jobs in chicago, st. Louis, cleveland, pittsburgh, new york. Over time, the africanamerican populations in the citys increase. The African Americans in the 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 exit dusters. He goes to grade school and high school in kansas. He finds his way to chicago and the 1890s, and he moves up to the political system. He becomes a chicago city councilman in the midnineteen teens. His career had some pizza and balance. At the 1920s, he is a part of the republican political machine in chicago. He is the older man. The alderman. In 1928, when visiting congressmen the sitting congressman from chicago, he is on the Appropriations Committee passes away mid in the fall election, the priest runs for the seat. He wins. In 1929, he comes to be house of representatives. One of my favorite things about Oscar Depriests career is this little button that we have the collection that this from his career. It is small. It says depriest for congress with a picture of him. One of the things i love is that they are very rare. There are probably not many around initially. Very few survived. The think i have seen maybe one other, to others in existence. If you think about this tiny button, worn on someones lapel, looking like any other button, this actually represents a revolution. The attempt to elect an African American to congress for the first time in decades. Just this presence of this inch and a quarter piece of metal would have been a real statement on the part of whoever was wearing it. I love that it has survived and that it has come back to the place where whoever owned it wanted depriest to end up, which was the u. S. Congress. When he got here, he then found a lot of a lot he was interested in. A lot that came to him that he did not ask for. The issues he handled and the way he was received. He does end up being the circuit surrogate representative for African Americans in general. And it musttely, 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 African American in the southside of chicago, you did not get the sense that he embraced this role as a representative of African Americans generally until he comes to congress. A couple of things happen right off the bat immediately that really forced him to take a role for African American political rights. He is the first africanamerican to serve in a long time. When he comes to congress, theres a bit of a firestorm in the press. It was tradition for the first lady, and this case, herbert hoovers wife, to have 18 for to have a tea for all the congressional wives. 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 did not 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 very carefully preselected and was a small group of congresswomen who he knew would not object. This get out there in the press and Oscar Depriest pilloried the Southern State legislatures that had spoken up. This is the first roadblock that he runs into. Another one happens in the house. About where his office is located. Right. People dont want their offices next to his. Members say, i will not serve, they dont want to be serving with an African American. When we were doing some research on the history of who had what officein the different buildings, and the canon office building, it turned out that the place that Oscar Depriest was assigned was a bathroom. They ripped out the plumbing and just turned it into an office for him. One has to wonder, did they choose that space because it could happen at the last minute and perhaps it would sidestep any objection . They would not think it if i would be next to them, they thought the bathroom was next door. But it is one of the things that bubble up from lots of primary Source Research that we learn the stories behind the stories. One other episode happens late in his career when a staffer, his chief of staff, and a Family Member are asked to leave the house restaurant and move to a segregated room where African Americans could get lunch in an adjoining space. Depriest objected to this, unsurprisingly, and defended his secretary as chief of staff. And went after the chairman of what was then called the accounts committee in the house. Lindsay lauren of north carolina, who had dictated that it needed to be segregated. He comes on to the house floor, and the press plays a lot of attention to this. His line is, if we cannot have freedom, if we cannot have the quality of the goodell of the equality under the dome of the capital, then where in gods name are we going to get it . The house creates a special committee to investigate segregation in the restaurant. The issue dies in the committee. The restaurant remains segregated. It remains well into the 20 th century. It brings up not just the experience of africanamerican members in the 19th century and early part of the 20th century, but what the experience of the staff was. The restaurant is a good example. In the 19th century, the responsibility of running the house restaurant was given as a concession. Somebody could have almost a franchise of running it. In the 1860s, that is awarded to a famous africanamerican restaurant tour, George Downing. He is famous as a caterer. He runs the restaurant and his experience is as someone who is a businessman operating in that space, and the reconstruction period, there are some examples about africanamericans being some of the pioneers of being on staff and in the same way that the reconstruction period as they are very few in number but they managed to be in positions that have not been created for them, but positions that have some weight and purpose. Matt and symbolic importance that these individuals were put into these positions. One of them was william smith, who was the house librarian in the 1880s. It is an appointed position. It is one of the most prominent positions in the institution and at that point, he is one of the highestranking African Americans in the government. He came to the house starting working in the library. He had been promoted by radical republicans. Senator sumner had helped push him 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 of the james. He is appointed by a member who is part of the reconstructed virginia government. He is a carpetbagger from the officer,former union and he serves in a district that represents richmond. He is appointed in 1871. He served for about 1. 5 years. He is the great grandnephew of john mercer langston. , who was in washington at that time. He was serving as the dean or president of Howard University at the time. Later he will be in congress himself. There is this network of people who know other people and are able to move things around and make things happen. Then we get from George Downing in the 1860s running the house restaurant to be chief of staff for Oscar Depriest being refused service in the house. House. Later in his career, he champions these issues that need championing and are not necessarily related to his constituency. Then he becomes a National Figure. Another object in the collection that relates to that is a program from a speech he is giving in dayton, ohio. He does not say what hes got to talk about. Hes just speaking and it happens at the local junior high school. There is a band. Hoohawre all kinds of around the whole thing. Hes been presented as a statesman reported to the africanamerican community. For the end of his career, it is part of this notion of surrogate representation. Matt the fact that you are representing people beyond the borders of your district or state. You are a National Figure. Farar then, you do not really oscar as a National Figure. We do. [laughter] farar many people do not. In the late 1940s, based on to on the arrival, they do become National Figures. Matt depriest leads congress in 1935. He is defeated for reelection by another africanamerican from chicago. Arthur mitchell. He is the first africanamerican elected as a democrat to congress. What you begin to see in that decade of the 1930s into the 1940s and you see it very clearly in this chicago district is that there is a shift in , africanamerican allegiance away from the american republican party, the party of reconstruction, to the party, the Democratic Party during the new deal. Part of that has to do with the fact that africanamericans are recruited by democratic city leaders. There is 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 they have a slightly greater voice in the new Deal Coalition that Franklin Roosevelt puts together. So they are drawn toward the Democratic Party. Mitchell is the embodiment of that. However, he is the opposite of depriest. He chooses not to be a surrogate representative. He downplays the fact that he is in africanamerican in congress. He does not want to push black issues as he told the press on numerous occasions. He served for a couple terms and is replaced by another member named William Dawson who is one of the longestserving africanamericans inhouse history. Dawson, another individual who started off as a republican and moved to the Democratic Party in chicago. He is important because by the late 1940s, he chairs the committee that will become the oversight and government reform. It was Government Operations back in 1940. And he chairs the committee with the exception of a single term for the rest of his career. For two decades. But he is another member who comes into the institution and that challenges things frontally, he feels like he can make changes by fitting into these institution and try to affect change from his position of power. Farar and in addition to being committee chair, and being part of that institutional approach to things, he has a portrait of himself as Many Committee it createdd, he has and it is one of the first portraits of an africanamerican in the u. S. Congress. Which raises it to the very elevated place, and our estimation. William dawsons portrait is the first africanamerican Committee Chairman portrait. It is a wonderful portrait and in that it represents him as the embodiment of a committee chair. It is not one where there are lots of sort of other elements to give you clues of 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. 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 comes in and first 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 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 flamboyant. , very 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 reporter im a baptist minister , by training and