Permanent Interests: 1965–1990

The generation of lawmakers who came to Capitol Hill after the civil rights revolution was at the forefront of a remarkable expansion of Black political representation across the country. The civil rights acts of the 1960s and court-ordered redistricting opened new avenues of political participation for millions of African Americans. Consequently, many more Black politicians were elected to office at the state and federal levels. In 1966, Edward Brooke became the first African American in 85 years to be elected to the U.S. Senate. Two years later, the number of African Americans in Congress increased to nine, at that point the most ever in one Congress. Among those elected in November 1968 was the first Black woman to serve in Congress, Representative Shirley Chisholm of New York. This era also saw the return of the first Black Members from southern states that had not been represented by Black Representatives or Senators in seven decades or more. Representative Andrew Young of Georgia, for example, was elected in 1972 as the first Black Member from Georgia since 1871. Barbara Jordan of Texas and Harold E. Ford Sr. of Tennessee represented southern states that had never sent a Black candidate to Congress. By the 100th Congress (1987–1989) there were 24 Black Members of Congress, elected from districts across the country.

As the number of African Americans serving on Capitol Hill continued to grow, Black lawmakers began to formally organize and coordinate their shared legislative efforts. In early 1971, 12 African-American Members of Congress formed the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) to promote what Representative William Lacy “Bill” Clay Sr. of Missouri called the “permanent interests” important to Black Americans, to advance Black Members within the institution, and to push legislation, sometimes with potent results. “Blacks never could rely on somebody in Congress to speak out on racial questions; they can with the caucus,” declared CBC cofounder Representative Louis Stokes of Ohio.⁶

Black lawmakers in this era sought to expand and protect the civil rights gains of the mid-1960s, support the liberation of Black people around the globe, and memorialize the achievements and activists of the civil rights movement. The CBC won a number of notable legislative victories, including the passage of Voting Rights Act extensions in 1975 and 1982, the 1983 creation of a federal holiday commemorating the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., and the 1986 law that imposed the first sanctions against South Africa’s all-White government for its practice of apartheid.

The CBC also used its influence within the Democratic Caucus to win better committee assignments and leadership opportunities for Black Members. Typically representing safe electoral districts, many African-American Members enjoyed long careers that allowed them to accrue the seniority necessary to move into positions of power. From 1989 to 1991, for instance, William H. Gray III of Pennsylvania served as Democratic Majority Whip—the third-ranking party leader behind the Speaker and the Democratic Leader.

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