The first eight A personal history of the pioneering Black congressmen who shaped a nation

Review by Booklist Review

South Carolina Congressman Clyburn presents a vividly written account of the life and times of the first eight African Americans who represented South Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives. The first eight were Robert Smalls, Joseph Rainey, George Washington Murray, Robert DeLarge, Alonzo Ransier, Thomas Miller, Richard Harry Cain, and Robert Brown Elliott. They represented the state after the Civil War and served prominently in the state's government and Republican Party. Whites opposing African American civil rights used legal chicanery, fraud, and violence to challenge the re-election of these eight men, but Smalls and Murray served several terms in Congress even after whites gutted Reconstruction. Clyburn expertly and concisely blends the history of Reconstruction and accounts of the differing backgrounds and lives of each of the first eight. Images of the time, including Thomas Nast cartoons, enrich the narrative. Clyburn acknowledges that these men sometimes undercut their efforts with needless disagreements, examines allegations of corruption against them, and details their efforts to battle corruption. Whether they advocated for civil rights or hurricane aid, the first eight served all South Carolinians with distinction. Clyburn, who learned he has many connections to Smalls' descendants and may be related to Murray, compares the lives of the first eight to his personal and public experiences.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

---

Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In this stirring tribute, Clyburn, South Carolina's ninth Black congressman, profiles his eight predecessors, Black Republicans who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1868 to 1897. They include Robert Smalls, who won his freedom during the Civil War by hijacking a Confederate ship; George Washington Murray, an ex-slave who became a prosperous landowner; and Richard Cain, a prominent freeborn Methodist minister. Their saga starts with extraordinary hopes in the 1860s, when the 14th Amendment and federal civil rights laws enforced by federal occupation troops gave Black South Carolinians the right to vote, resulting in a state legislature and Congressional delegation dominated by Black Republicans who pursued measures to give freedmen land, education, and equality. Later chapters recount the backlash: hundreds of Republicans were murdered by the KKK and the Red Shirt militia, Democratic election officials stuffed ballot boxes and intimidated Black voters, and unfairly implemented voting regulations caused Black voter registration to plummet. Clyburn chronicles the dogged struggle of his eight predecessors to preserve Black rights--Smalls was almost killed when Red Shirts invaded a campaign rally--as they navigated Democratic violence, an increasingly indifferent Congress, and intra-Party rivalries. The narrative is full of drama, and Clyburn adds insights from his own experience breaking racial barriers as a civil-rights-era politician. It adds up to a gripping account of political courage under the most fraught circumstances. (Nov.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

---

Review by Kirkus Book Review

A group biography of the eight Black men to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives after the Civil War. The author is the first Black congressman from South Carolina to serve in the House since the late 1800s, arriving a century after the eight men portrayed here. There is a reason for this: Those eight served valiantly but were unable to contain the revanchism that replaced slavery with Jim Crow; Republicans all, they "could not stop the violence and fraud deployed by the group that often referred to themselves as Conservative Democrats, or Southern Democrats." The best known of Clyburn's forerunners was Robert Smalls, who sailed a small ship out of Charleston Harbor under the nose of thousands of Confederates and brought it to the Union blockade fleet, saying, "I thought this ship might be of some use to Uncle Abe." Smalls went on to become a recruiting officer for the federal army, personally enlisting 5,000 Black men. Robert De Large, the son of free Black parents who themselves owned slaves, battled in Congress for the right of Black South Carolinians to vote, which came about only after the federal government required the creation of a state constitution that granted all men the franchise. Richard Harvey Cain helped bring Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church to life after the Civil War, despite substantial opposition from white Charlestonians. Cain worked diligently to secure civil rights for Blacks in the former Confederacy, while back in Charleston a woman named Mary Bowers "took a seat on a streetcar and refused to budge, prompting her unceremonious removal"--nearly 90 years before Rosa Parks. As Clyburn notes, the arrival of five Black representatives in the 42nd Congress, and three others thereafter, inspired some reforms. But more, "it stoked serious fear and trepidation among white supremacists," who, Clyburn provocatively notes, have been reborn as "MAGA Republicans and their supporters." A thoughtful consideration of historical figures too little known to readers today. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

---