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we visit the health office building to see artifacts that tell the story of african-americans 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 african-american 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 african-american to be elected in the 19th century leaves in 1901. george white of north carolina. then it is a long time before another african-american comes into the house and that is oscar dupree from illinois. we had a couple of rare artifacts from him from the 1920's and 1930's. 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 african-american 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 multi-decade movement that would later be called the great migration. that begins on which to store and you talk to and 1890's 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 african-american's 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 african-american populations in the city's 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 1890's, and he moves up

to the political system. he becomes a chicago city councilman in the mid-nineteen teens. his career had some pizza and balance. at the 1920's, 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 depriest's 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 someone's 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 african-american to serve in a long time.

when he comes to congress, there's a bit of a firestorm in the press. it was tradition for the first lady, and this case, herbert hoover's 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 african-american 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, oscar's 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 don't want their offices next to his. members say, "i will not serve," they don't 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 god's 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 african-american 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 1860's, that is awarded to a famous african-american 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 african-americans 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 1880's. 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 highest-ranking 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 african-american 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 1860's 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 he's got to talk about. he's just speaking and it happens at the local junior high school. there is a band. hoo-hawre all kinds of around the whole thing. he's been presented as a statesman reported to the african-american 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 1940's, based on to -- on the arrival, they do become national figures. matt: depriest leads congress in 1935. he is defeated for reelection by another african-american from chicago. arthur mitchell. he is the first african-american elected as a democrat to congress. what you begin to see in that decade of the 1930's into the 1940's and you see it very clearly in this chicago district is that there is a shift in , african-american 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 african-americans are recruited by democratic city leaders. there is the promise of greater political participation. which is, that promise that pulled african-americans 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 african-american 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 longest-serving african-americans in-house 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 1940's, 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 african-american in the u.s. congress. which raises it to the very elevated place, and our estimation. william dawson's portrait is the first african-american 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. it's 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 people's 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 low-key. 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, black-and-white, 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 1970's, he was the person who kind of embodied civil rights in the house. civil rights in congress. he's elected in 1944. he and dawson are the only two members of congress for a number of congresses in the early 1950's. 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. don't 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 rayburn's 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 1960's 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 i'm a baptist minister , by training and i don't know whether to baptize that man or drown him. he had a good sense of humor.

he serves into the early 1970's. he is one of the longest serving in house history. when he came in to congress in the mid-1940's, there was no large civil rights movement that was happening outside of congress. and that does not come along until the 1950's with martin luther king and the southern christian leadership conference. and so powell is very much the face of civil rights in the united states for more than a decade. but then once the movement , begins happening outside of congress, as one of his biographers has told us, he begins to compete with it a little bit. because he is no longer the face of civil rights. and over time, his attendance, his behavior becomes little bit more erratic. the house actually in the 1960's

refuses to seat him. the supreme court rules he is .ntitled to be seated but by the 1960's, he has nearly ended his career. and in the he has run the course 1970's, of his career and leaves the house. farar: we see that in the artifacts of the collection. he is speaking over the heads of congress and directly to the people by producing this. and he is a great orator. he was a terrific preacher. if you ever see a film clip of him preaching, it is quite something. as aen releases this another example of the way he is inserting himself into the conversation. artifacts in the collection that are similar in

style and usage. but the small differences show a change in african-americans serving in congress over just a 15 year period. late 1950's object is a fan. it is the nation's negro congressman. it was printed in large numbers and passed out for free. it contains a big picture of the and the four african-american members of congress who served at that time. then, if you jump forward to the mid-70's, instead of four members of congress and a big picture of the capital, it has gotten so crowded that they have eliminated that language of change. instead of the nation's negro congressman, it is black lawmakers. there are over a dozen members. it shows a before and after.

this is a particular time of american history. it really kind of covers the 60's and early 70's. the changes that happen for african-americans in congress. matt: the big change is the passage of the voting rights act of 1965. extending protections to african-american voters in the south, allowing them to register. and that has some big implications for changing the face of congress over the course of the next decade. in 1955, there were just six african-american serving in congress. all in the house. by the mid-1970's, that number has grown to 18 members. and over time, it is an increasingly diverse lot. we get our first african-american woman. that is surely chisholm -- in 1969.hisolm

and more specifically to the voting rights act which protects voters in districts where they have a hard time registering previously because of local laws and state laws and disenfranchisement. we have the first southern members elected since reconstruction. and as the numbers of african americans in congress increase, one thing that this allows the core group to do is to create an issues caucus. so in 1971, we have the formation of the congressional black caucus. which is a group of roughly a dozen members at that point. but it is able to exercise some power as a voting block and as an organization that educates members on issues that are important to the black community nationally.

so the black caucus becomes involved very early on in things like opposing apartheid in south africa, building momentum to pass a federal holiday to commemorate martin luther king's birthday. so it is operating at a legislative level. but inside the institution, it is important to african-american members because it is doing things like getting them on to bigger and better committees and into positions where they can influence a broad range of legislation. farar: one of my favorite parts of the house collection are the campaign buttons, especially as they relate to african-american lawmakers. we have some from the early part of the century, for oscar depriest. and then as members grow and have more.gress, you one of my favorite is of ron

delorme from the west coast. comes to chair the committee of the house. and we have a button right here. this is from a reelection campaign of his. and at that point he has already begun some of the most interesting things he would be doing in the ways that he operated within the house. matt: he is elected to congress in the 1970 election. comes into the house in 1971. he's a veteran. he had run on an antiwar movement running against the war in vietnam. he represents berkeley california which has a strong , antiwar constituency. and he wants to get on committees where he can begin to affect military policy. so he begins to lobby to get onto the armed services committee. he is also a cofounder of the congressional black caucus. that is in 1971. and he uses the caucus to help move into a position to get onto

on services. -- armed services. and one of the story that he told us in an oral history interview was going to the speaker of the house and appealing to speaker albert to put him on armed services. and this was in effect going around the committee chairman who was a southern dixiecrat from louisiana. and he went to make this pitch congressional black caucus colleague. cop inthem playing good the other bad cop trying to get , into the committee. >> we got all of the members of cbc -- we cannot do anything

for writing. that is what we started to talk. mr. speaker, it is a matter of principle. and if you don't put the brother on the committee, we will denounce this as a racist institution. so you got the nice guy going, this is a matter of principle. this is about fairness and justice. right? so at a certain point albert got up and said, i am going to see if i can get this thing reconfigured. at that moment, i knew i had won. so we walk out and i say it is , over. the fact that the speaker said they were going to reconsider it, it is done. ok. 1.5 hours later, i get this phone call -- i am the african-american appointed to first the house armed services committee.

incredible thing. matt: so he gets onto the thatttee and he finds out he has gotten the assignment. that is half the battle. so he shows up on the day that the committee is being organized and he realizes that there is just one seat that has been put out for him at the dais. that is going to be shared with pat trevor, another antiwar candidate who had come into congress. >> the first day we organize, pat schroeder who had just won , was on armed services. chairere is only one available at the committee table. and nobody wanted -- and they did not want another seat there. -- pat andd at past

i introduced myself. i said i'm honored to be here , with you. my grandmother taught me not to let people make fun of you cheaply, if it is ok with you, why don't you and i sit in the seat side by side together as if it is the most normal thing in the world. and she said, cool. so we are on this one seat for the entire organizational meeting and we never acted as if -- even though we wanted to scream, we said no. we let our silence and our behavior handle it. they did not know what to do. we did not scream. so the next time, two seats were there. we made our point. we moved on. matt: the service on that

committee represents a wider period of reform where the power of committee chairs is rolled back and junior members and the diversity of members, african-americans and women, get bigger and better committee assignments. within a congress, it is part of a group that helps to remove that original chairman from the committee and put in another chairman. eventually, by the end of his career, he chairs the armed services committee. so one of the other changes going on here is more african-americans are elected to congress in the decades of the 1970's, 80's, 90's. and we see for the first time women represented in that group. and the very was shirley first chisholm. who is elected from the brooklyn

center district. she comes into the house in 1969. and someone again, who very much has a show horse legislative style. she's talking to the press. she is very much part of a feminist wave of women and congress members. she serves alongside people like labs from new york. she eventually serves on the house rules committee, which is a powerful committee in the house. but throughout her career is kind of, again, another person who is a symbolic or circuit -- surrogate representative. not just for african americans, but for women. and following her throughout the next four decades, roughly 40 african-american women who are elected to congress. and that is impressive when you look at that number of relative

-- number relative to the number of african-americans who have served in congress from the beginning. it is a much larger percentage than caucasian women or hispanic women, or asian-american women. kind of the rising influence of women within the community and their role in congress. farar: one of the things that is interesting about looking at women in congress and african american women in congress is seeing the role on the national stage. and we have a couple of artifacts that illustrate that. here is a cover of ebony magazine, 1969. eyght when surely -- shirl -- came in to congress. she is on the cover and it is a new face in congress.

first black woman on capitol hill. she, like many other members of congress really become an important national figures in the african american press. for example, right around the time the congressional black ebony is ableted, to put a lot of folks on the cover. it really becomes an important caucus, important issue-based group. but each of these people become important in different ways to different communities. ofnne berk is on the cover jet twice. it says a woman who may become a , congresswoman. and she does not become a 1967.sswoman in a little bit later, she does. she is elected to congress and shows up on the covers of a lots of magazines. not just as the face of not just black women in congress and

women in congress and younger women in congress. she is the first member of congress to have a baby while she is serving. ebonye shows up on holding her baby. she is on the cover. shirley chisholm also becomes a national figure in ways that are two buttons.e they don't say anything about shirley chisholm running for congress. they're all about her running for president. she is our girl. for president. represent all americans. you can see the woman symbol around her face places her in with a feminist agenda. and that was something that was important to her. and on the national stage for the 1972 election, she was very much putting together a very interesting group of people. if you look at some clips of her at the democratic convention, it is interesting to see her season

ed and talking about her delegates. they are very skilled politicians who also become show horse approaches to things. we don't see behind-the-scenes and in front of the scenes. you see a lot of action going on. >> i stand before you today as a candidate for the democratic nomination for the presidency of the united states of america. [applause] farar: when the congressional black caucus is founded in the early 1970's, one thing they do that is striking as something that brings them to more prominence is that they really place themselves in a national context. one example of that is the fantastic record album. it is the first annual benefits

concert for the congressional black caucus. it featured such fantastic andle as cool in the gang gladys knight. it was very successful. and it was part of the black national caucus being a real power. there are thousands of objects in the house collection of art and artifacts. these are just a few of them. you can learn a lot more about them on our website which is history. house.gov. but even more importantly been andhan going to the website finding out about stuff, these are all objects that represent this incredibly long history of this institution. and each and every one of these, text on a just background, to something that is grander, like a portrait or a

chisolm on airley magazine. each of these is putting a little bit of a human face on the history of the house of representatives. it makes the institution that much more accessible to all of us. we can really get a sense of who were these people. who are these people that represent us. and what is our role in it. matt: the history of african americans and caucus is important for us to preserve and tell. it tells us a story of two different levels. one is the history of our institution and some of the dynamic people who have been a part of it. some of the unique personalities. and also how our institution evolved as african-americans became part of that. and it is in that perspective too, the other story being told is one of the african-american experience nationally, post

civil war. from reconstruction to jim crow to the great migration to increased political participation during the mid-20th century civil rights movement and the revolution that that brought. so it is really telling two different important stories that the house is both affected by and also affects. >> to see more photographs artwork and images of african , americans in congress, visit history.house.gov. the website is a collaborative project between the united states house of representatives historians office and the house clerk office of art and archives. >> if you missed any of the vice presidential debate, go to c-span.org using your desktop, phone or tablet. on the page, watch the entire debate my choosing between the split screen and switch camera options. you can even go to specific questions and answers, finding

the content you want quickly and easily. and use the clipping tool to share them on social media. desktop,g, on your phone or tablet for the vice presidential debate. bookshelf,history the book "bunker hill: a city, a seige, a revolution." hilbrick talks about how boston was the center of conflict between patriots and british soldiers, following the boston tea party. and he talks about how things escalated at lexington and concorde and two months later at bunker hill. this was recorded at the coolidge corner theatre in 2013. it is about 45 minutes.