menard was in february of 1869 allowed to speak on the house floor to defend himself in his contested election case. the house chose not to seat him or his opponent, and he never was seated, but he won the election. the house just exercised its right not to seat him. the first african-american who was elected to the house and seated in the house is joseph rainey of south carolina in december of 1870 and following him are another 19 african-american members throughout the course of the 19th century. rainey wasn't actually the first african-american in congress. that distinction went to hyrem rebels of mississippi who was elected by the state legislature as senators were back in the 19th century. and he came into congress in early 1870s. but when you think about that revolution that occurs within a matter of less than a decade. so rainey had been born into slavery. during the civil war, he'd been conscripted into the federal army to dig trenches around charleston where he was from. he escaped to bermuda during the war. comes back after the war. gains a political experience and a politic

was serving a maximum of ten years for burglary and forgery at another illinois penitentiary called menardarole coming but a guy was messing with my food in the dining room and i just -- i went off, tried to get him and got involved in a prison riot down there. there was three prison guards got killed down there at the time. they give me the electric chair for one of them murders. they said everybody stabbed this one lieutenant. >> in 1972 the u.s. supreme court abolished capital punishment. basset's sentence was commuted to 150 years with the opportunity for parole every year. though he's been repeatedly turned down for parole, he remains one of stateville's model prisoners. he's worked in the industries department for more than 15 years. >> let's make sure it gets out to the right place. we have to number everything. i like it. i'm the type of guy likes to stay busy. i can't just lay around. i like to work. they call me a workaholic, really. they be trying to slow me down. >> i hire him as a janitor and slowly we train him and working with different equipment and assemblies and stuff. an

friend getting in trouble on pit road during the first stop when she slit across the nose of paul menard'seeping your kids off the football field but what about the monkey bars. the cdc issues a new safety report saying the monkey bars are a reason for the spike of concussions. those are your headlines. >>> who knew. >> poor kids on the monkey bars. they like them. >> put a pell met on and spray that stuff on you that's unbreakable. >>> now to extreme weather to tell you about. reports of two tornados touched down in indiana. [ siren ] >>> along with the frightening sirens as warning, hail hit the state. gusty winds wreaking havoc through georgia. that same storm system tearing through louisiana leaving thousands in the dark and the new orleans jazzfest, one of the world's most famous music festivals is under water. >> oh, boy. where is the weather now? >> it's that time of your where we see severe weather and big-time hail and tornadoes. we're expecting to see that threat later on across portions of the mid-atlantic and extending farther south. first taking a look at ray dark you can see