the very last individual who serves is george henry white of north carolina. represented a coastal district in north carolina that had elected african-americans before. he is the last african-american to serve for really three decades. he forcefully pushed for two things while he was a member. one was anti-lynching legislation, which no one had really championed before and he pushes for that. it goes nowhere. it languishes in the judiciary committee and never really is debated, but he is out there talking on the floor. the other thing he wanted was because there were so many blacks being denied political rights in the south, he wanted to reduce the participation of southern states based on the number that were being disenfranchised. there were no african-americans to champion this. in 1901, white leaves congress. he faces some very tough reelection stash a lot of violence, a lot of fraud. he leaves the house. when he does, he gives a speech in february of 1901, which is tremendously moving, because he knows he is the last african-american in congress for a whi

the very last individual who serves during that period is george henry white of north carolina. represented a coastal district in north carolina. that had elected an african-american before. and he serves for two terms in the late 1890s. he's the last african-american to serve really for three decades. and he very forcefully pushed for two things while he was a heb. one was anti-lynching legislation which no one had championed before and he pushes for that. it goes nowhere. it languishes in the judiciary committee and never really is debated. but he's out there talking about it on the floor. and the other thing that he wanted was to -- because so many blacks were being denied their political rights in the south, he wanted to reduce the representation of southern states in congress based on how many people were being disenfranchised in southern districts. and so these are two issues that percolate in the house in the next couple of decades but there is no african-americans there to champion it. in 1901 white leaves office, facing violence and fraud and he leaves the house. when h