African Americans in Congress: A Documentary History

Book info: African Americans in Congress: A Documentary History (Hardcover, 543 pages) – CQ Press, 2007. Language: English.

?From the first steps toward enfranchisement through modern lawmakers’ vision for America, a new book from CQ Press is the first single-volume reference to provide the complete story of African Americans making U.S. political history. In African Americans in Congress: A Documentary History, authors Eric Freedman―a Pulitzer Prize winner―and Stephen A. Jones, have assembled a vital collection of original narrative supported by more than 120 of the most important historical documents tracing the African American political experience and the history of African American legislators in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.  

Throughout this comprehensive work, the stories of notable African Americans who have served in Congress are told, including: Hiram R. Revels of Mississippi, the first African American senator; Shirley A. Chisholm of New York, the first black woman to serve in Congress; Charles B. Rangel of New York, the chair of the House Committee on Ways and Means and a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus; and Barack Obama of Illinois, the only African American senator in the 110th Congress. ?

 

The first part of the book features chronological chapters on the history of African American involvement in U.S. politics and on Capitol Hill, while the second part features thematic chapters on the African American political experience. The issues and events covered include:

• The debate over slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction
• The civil rights movement and political empowerment
• The maturation of the Congressional Black Caucus
• Elections and investigations
• War, peace, patriotism and international affairs
• The struggle for economic justice

It also details some little-known stories, including future Rep. Robert Smalls’ heroism in commandeering a Confederate ship during the Civil War and piloting it into Union custody and the controversy when President Herbert Hoover’s wife invited the wife of Rep. Oscar De Priest to a White House tea.

The appendixes contain lists of African Americans in the 110th Congress and those since the 41st Congress, a chronology of significant events and an extensive bibliography.

Editorial Reviews From This documentary history offers the full text of selected primary source documents, including congressional testimony, committee reports, Supreme Court decisions, letters, pamphlets, legislation, and presidential messages to Congress. Beginning with the American Revolution and ending with the 2007 Democratic congressional gains, it seeks to illustrate the struggle of African Americans “to influence Congress to guarantee their civil and political rights.” Documents are grouped  into both chronological and topical chapters, and all chapters begin with several pages of background and commentary. The documents chosen for African Americans in Congress are grouped into 14 chapters such as “The Revolutionary War to Dred Scott: The Antecedents of Political Empowerment, 1776–1857” and “African American Lawmakers and International Affairs: America as a World Power.” Readers will find Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and a 1901 “Republican Text-book for Colored Voters” (“Very nearly fifty per cent more money will have been drawn from the treasury of the nation under President McKinley’s administration by black men than under any other administration since the Republican party conferred popular rights upon them”). Appendixes provide, among other items, a chronology and a list of African Americans in Congress, 1870–2007. The concluding bibliography is arranged by topic. With so much documentary material readily obtainable from the Library of Congress American Memory project and similar Web sites, print-format documentary histories are no longer as critical to collections as they were before online availability. However, the careful arrangement and explanatory notes in  African Americans in Congress: A Documentary History add value that should not be underestimated in purchase decisions. Recommended for college and large public libraries. --Art A. Lichtenstein About the Author Eric Freedman is a Pulitzer Prize winner, assistant professor of journalism at Michigan State University, and a former legislative and press aide to U.S. Representative Charles B. Rangel. He has more than 25 years of experience covering politics and public affairs for newspapers, magazines, and wire services.

Stephen A. Jones is an assistant professor of history at Central Michigan University. He was a reporter and copy editor for the Associated Press, Detroit Free Press, Detroit Sunday Journal, and Ypsilanti Press before becoming a full-time educator.