WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — A modest room in the Capitol has been named after the first Black member of the House. He was Rep. Joseph H. Rainey, who was born into slavery in 1832 and served as a Reconstruction-era member of Congress.
No. 3 House Democratic leader James Clyburn, Rainey’s great-granddaughter Lorna Rainey and others used the event to talk about continuing efforts for social justice and voting rights.
Rainey was from Georgetown, South Carolina, where he was born a slave. His father was a barber who bought his family's freedom.
Clyburn, like Rainey, is from South Carolina.
Clyburn lamented that there was 95 years between Reconstruction and when he was elected as South Carolina's next Black congressman.