Permanent Interests: 1965–1990

On the evening of Friday, January 22, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon presented his second annual State of the Union Address to a packed audience in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives. Members of both houses of Congress, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Supreme Court Justices, and Cabinet secretaries gathered to hear Nixon call for “a New American Revolution—a peaceful revolution in which power was turned back toward the people—in which government at all levels was refreshed and renewed, and made truly responsive.” Absent from the Capitol that night were the 12 Black Members of the House (Edward W. Brooke, a Black Senator from Massachusetts did attend). Led by Louis Stokes of Ohio and William Lacy “Bill” Clay Sr. of Missouri, the Black Representatives boycotted the speech because, as they explained, the President had “consistently refused” to meet with them to discuss the White House’s legislative agenda. On several occasions during the previous year, Black Members had tried to sit down with the President, but the administration repeatedly rebuffed their requests. To the Black Members, Nixon’s refusal was symptomatic of the administration’s lack of interest in the issues facing Black Americans. “Your consistent refusal to hear the pleas and concerns of ‘black Americans’ dictates our decision to be absent,” the Members explained in a letter to the President.¹

The boycott worked. Following substantial media coverage, Nixon agreed to meet with the group of Black Members, who first organized in 1969 as the Democratic Select Committee but soon renamed themselves the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). On March 25, all 13 members of the caucus—12 Representatives and Walter E. Fauntroy, who had recently won a March election to become the Delegate from Washington, DC—met with Nixon at the White House. The Members explained that they were there not just as the representatives of their districts, but as representatives of Black Americans everywhere. “Even though we think first of those we were directly elected to serve, we cannot, in good conscience think only of them—for what affects one black community, one urban community, affects all.” The Black Members of Congress and, they suggested, African Americans across the country, were intent on expanding and ensuring the rights and protections that the civil rights movement had won only years earlier in the 1960s. “Our people are no longer asking for equality as a rhetorical promise. They are demanding from a national administration, and from elected officials without regard to party affiliation, the only kind of equality that ultimately has any real meaning—equality of results.” The group presented Nixon with a list of 61 policy proposals, including an expansion of affirmative action, a public works program, the protection of federal social welfare programs, more federal support for minority-owned businesses, criminal justice reforms, and increased aid to Africa.²

In the days following the meeting at the White House, Ethel Payne, a groundbreaking Black journalist, took stock of what she saw as a new era of Black congressional influence. The Black Members who attended the meeting, Payne wrote, “carry with them the hopes and aspirations of the estimated 25 million blacks in the country and they have now become the voice for that segment of the population.” “It was clear,” Payne continued, “that the establishment was rocked, not so much by the rhetoric of the statement, but at the evidence of the rising tide of determination expressed by the 13.”³

In the ensuing two decades, the Black Members of Congress profiled in this section strived to realize the potential that Ethel Payne had recognized in the boycott. From 1965 to 1990, the number and influence of African Americans in Congress increased significantly. Black Representatives worked to win seats on powerful committees, and some attained roles in Democratic leadership. While important ideological and political differences existed among the Black men and women elected in this period, by and large they shared similar legislative goals. These Members often led legislative efforts to end civil and human rights abuses abroad. They sought to leverage the power of the federal government to alleviate social ills. And, most significantly, they worked tirelessly to expand and protect the civil, economic, and political rights won by Black Americans in the 1960s. Navigating national and international economic and political transformations, Black Members in the 1970s and 1980s led efforts to desegregate America’s schools, bolster voting rights, guarantee equal employment, and improve fair housing laws.

Shortly after the boycott in 1971, Bill Clay spoke about a new era he saw developing on Capitol Hill: what he called a “new black politics of confrontation.” The lesson Congress needed to heed was clear; he said that “what is good for minorities is good for the nation.” The CBC was at the helm of this transformation. Its members wanted to build on the civil rights movement’s legislative foundations as they confronted new political and economic challenges. “We have no permanent friends, no permanent enemies,” Clay said, “just permanent interests.”⁴

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