we had some for oscar depriest. in moving for come out the -- growingmembers, roners of congress, this is delorme from the west coast. he comes to carry committee of the house. .e have a button right here this is from a reelection campaign of his. he had already begun some of the most interesting things he would be doing and the ways that he operated within the house. >> 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 warment running against the in vietnam. he represents berkeley california which has a strong antiwar constituency. he wants to get on committees where he can begin to affect military policy. he begins to lobby to get onto the armed services committee. he is also a cofounder of the congressional black caucus. help movee caucus to into a position to get onto on services. one of the story that he told us an oral history -- in an oral history interview was going to the speaker of the house and appealing to speaker albert to put him on a

in 1929, he comes to be house of representatives. >> one of my favorite things about oscar depriest's career is this little tiny button we have in the collection from his career. it is really small. it says depriest for congress. one of the things i love most about it is they are very rare. there were probably not many around initially. very few survive. i think i have only seen one or two others in existence. if you think about the tiny lapel,worn on someone's 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. the presence of this little piece of metal would have been a real statement on the part of whoever was wearing it. i love that it has survived and whoeverk to the place owned it wanted him to end up, which was the u.s. congress. , he found a lot that he was interested in, a lot that came to him that perhaps he did not ask for in the way he was received, the issues he handled, all kinds of stuff like that. he does end up being the circuit representative for african americans in