House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-South Carolina), center, acknowledges members of the Congressional Black Caucus as they are sworn in during a ceremony before the start of the 111th Congress in 2009. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)
May 2, 2026 at 5:00 a.m. EDT23 minutes ago
The Supreme Court’s ruling to limit a key part of the landmark Voting Rights Act this week adds a new bend to the winding history of Black representation in Congress, fueling fear from civil rights leaders that history will repeat itself and reverse years of gains.
The rise of Black lawmakers right after the Civil War prompted White backlash, giving way to long droughts in congressional representation. It took the nation decades after the civil rights era to have as many Black lawmakers in the South as there were after Reconstruction.
As political parties and civil rights advocates contemplate the consequences of the ruling, here is a timeline of the complicated, sometimes surprising history of Black representation in Congress.
1870
First Black people elected to Congress
Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina was the first Black member of the U.S. House and the first Black member to preside over the chamber. (Matthew Brady/Brady National Photographic Art Gallery/National Archives)
Congress met for eight decades without a single Black member.
That changed after the Civil War, as Black men gained rights and the Union reconstructed the South. In 1870, Hiram R. Revels of Mississippi became the first Black person seated in the Senate, and Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina was the first Black person sworn in to the House. Historians remember Rainey, who was born enslaved, as the longest-serving Black lawmaker during the Reconstruction era and a skilled orator who aided in passing the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 to help enforce civil rights.
In the decade that followed Rainey’s election, Black representation increased to a cumulative total of 14 Black representatives and two senators — all Republicans from the South. The victory was short-lived: Historians say the gains in Black political leadership prompted a wave of voter suppression alongside the rise of Jim Crow laws in the South.
1901
Last Reconstruction-era Black congressman leaves office
By the start of the 20th century, George Henry Wright of North Carolina was the lone Black congressman. He decided to leave office in 1901, and later his home state, after facing racist attacks and new state laws that further repressed Black voters, according to historians. In his farewell speech to Congress, White said: “This, Mr. Chairman, is perhaps the Negroes’ temporary farewell to the American Congress; but let me say, phoenixlike he will rise up some day and come again.”
No Black person served in Congress for the next 28 years.
1928
States outside South elect Black members of Congress
Oscar Stanton De Priest, then the only African American in Congress, is seen at his desk circa 1930. (Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Businessman and Democrat Oscar Stanton De Priest of Chicago was elected in 1928, becoming the lone Black member of Congress. Elected after political organizing in Black communities in the North, De Priest served as the Great Migration was underway, when approximately 6 million Black people from the South moved into Northern and Midwestern cities over six decades. Illinois was the only state with a Black representative until New York elected one in 1944. States outside the South continued to elect their first Black Congress members, all Democrats, but it took congressional and judicial intervention before former Confederate states elected Black representatives.
1963
250,000 attend the March on Washington
The Rev. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech on Aug. 28, 1963, in front of the Lincoln Memorial. (AP)
1965
Voting Rights Act passed
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act on Aug. 6, 1965. (AP)
The Voting Rights Act, passed on the heels of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, prohibited obstacles that denied people voting rights based on their race. At the time, just six Black people served in the House, all from outside the South. When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the law, he was surrounded by White lawmakers. Republican Edward Brooke of Massachusetts was elected to the Senate in 1966 — the first Black senator in 85 years. By 1969, a record nine Black people served in a single session of Congress, including its first Black woman, Shirley Chisholm of New York.
Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-New York) addresses the delegates to the first annual convention of the National Women’s Political Caucus in Houston on Feb. 9, 1973. (Ed Kolenovsky/AP)
1972
Deep South elects first Black congressman since Reconstruction
In 1972, the Deep South elected its first Black person to Congress since Reconstruction when Georgia sent Andrew Young, who had been a senior aide to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., to Capitol Hill. By then, two other former slaveholding states, Missouri and Maryland, had elected Black leaders to Congress. The Congressional Black Caucus was founded with about a dozen members in 1971 and drew national attention by boycotting President Richard M. Nixon’s State of the Union speech after he refused to meet with them.
1982
Voting Rights Act law amended
Congress strengthened the Voting Rights Act in 1982 to give it more teeth to block voting districts that dilute the voting power of racial minorities. The change effectively began ushering in a new wave of congressional districts that elected a generation of Black leaders across the country.
1993
Black representation in Congress soars
President Bill Clinton meets with members of the Congressional Black Caucus on May 26, 1993. With him are, from left, Reps. Alcee L. Hastings (D-Florida), Kweisi Mfume (D-Maryland) and Donald M. Payne (D-New Jersey). (J. David Ake/AFP/Getty Images)
In the 1993 Congress, Black representation jumped from 28 to 40, following court-mandated redistricting in the South tied to the Voting Rights Act. Newly drawn districts with majority-Black populations elected 13 new Black congress members, all Democrats, and eight from Southern states that had not elected a Black person to Congress since the 1800s, according to House records. Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-South Carolina) was in that freshman class, along with the country’s first Black woman in the Senate, Sen. Carol Moseley Braun (D-Illinois). In 1991, a Republican from Connecticut, Gary A. Franks, became his party’s first Black representative in more than 50 years.
2020s
Black influence in Congress grows
The portion of Black leaders in Congress began to more closely match its share of the population. Black members — who were increasingly serving longer tenures — increased their political influence in Congress, winning more leadership positions on committees and within the Democratic Caucus.
2025
Record number of Black members of Congress
Rep. Yvette D. Clarke (D-New York), then the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, meets with fellow members on March 4, 2025. (Michael A. McCoy/For The Washington Post)
The current Congress started in 2025 with a record high of 66 Black members, according to Pew Research Center, including five Republicans, the most to serve in Congress at one time since Reconstruction. The four Republicans who serve in the House have chosen not to seek reelection this year.
2028 and beyond
Majority-Black districts imperiled
Attendees at a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation dinner in D.C. listen to President Barack Obama speak on Sept. 17, 2016. (Olivier Douliery/Getty Images)
The Supreme Court’s recent ruling gives states freedom to draw congressional districts to partisan advantage — without needing to take race into account. Critics of the Voting Rights Act said the measure had done its job and considered the use of race to draw majority-Black districts discriminatory. Supporters fear that majority-Black districts will be eliminated and hard-fought gains in Black representation will be wiped out, a modern version of what happened after Reconstruction.
The day after the ruling, Louisiana moved to redraw its congressional districts ahead of the 2026 midterms — and Tennessee and Alabama soon followed. By the 2028 elections, more states are also expected to do so.
