Introduction: Shared experiences of black Americans in Congress -- The historiography of black Americans in Congress -- PART 1. FORMER BLACK-AMERICAN MEMBERS. "The Fifteenth Amendment in flesh and blood": The symbolic generation of black Americans in Congress, 1870-1887 -- Reconstruction's new order -- Freedmen's Bureau -- Pre-Congressional experience: slavery, education, professional background -- Crafting an identity: the Republican Party and black representation; elections; contested elections -- Washington experience -- Legislative interests: committee assignments; Ku Klux Klan and amnesty acts -- Civil Rights Bill of 1875 -- Rolling back civil rights -- Statistics charts: Congressional service for black Americans first elected, 1870-1886 -- Party divisions in the House of Representatives, 41st-49th congresses (1869-1887) -- Party divisions in the Senate, 41st-49th congresses (1869-1887) -- Contested election cases in the House: 1789-1901 -- Contested election cases in the House: 1856-1901 -- Hiram Rhodes Revels -- Joseph Hayne Rainey -- Jefferson Franklin Long -- Robert Carlos De Large -- Robert Brown Elliott -- Benjamin Sterling Turner -- Josiah Thomas Walls -- Richard Harvey Cain -- John Roy Lynch -- Alonzo Jacob Ransier -- James Thomas Rapier -- Blanche Kelso Bruce -- Jeremiah Haralson -- John Adams Hyman -- Charles Edmund Nash -- Robert Smalls -- James Edward O'Hara -- "The Negroes' temporary farewell": Jim Crow and the exclusion of African Americans from Congress, 1887-1929 -- Shifting Republican focus -- Elections: disfranchisement/disenfranchisement -- "Packing" and "cracking" black majority districts -- Fusion -- Black political rivalries -- Legislative interests: Monetary, economic, and foreign policy issues -- Federal elections bill -- Early Congressional anti-lynching campaign -- Reduction -- Historical legacy -- A generation lost -- Segregationist legislation and the rise of the NAACP -- WWI and the great migration -- Anti-lynching legislation renewed -- Reduction redux -- Power of the Southern Bloc in Congress -- Party realignment --

FORMER MEMBERS, 1887-1929: Henry Plummer Cheatham -- John Mercer Langston -- Thomas Ezekiel Miller -- George Washington Murray -- George Henry White -- Keeping the faith: African Americans return to Congress, 1929-1970 -- Longevity and seniority -- Party realignment and the New Deal -- The limits of New Deal reform -- WW2 -- Postwar foreign policy and African-American civil rights -- The Civil Rights Movement and the 2nd Reconstruction, 1945-1968 -- Civil Rights Act of 1957 -- Civil Rights Act of 1964 -- Voting Rights Act of 1965 -- Civil Rights Act of 1968 -- Crafting an Institutional Identity: Confronting racism -- Speaking out against segregation -- FORMER MEMBERS, 1929-1970: Oscar Stanton De Priest -- Arthur Wergs Mitchell -- William Levi Dawson -- Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. -- Charles Coles Diggs, Jr. -- Robert Nelson Cornelius Nix, Sr. -- Augustus Freeman (Gus) Hawkins -- Edward William Brooke III -- Shirley A. Chisholm -- William Lacy (Bill) Clay, Sr. -- Louis Stokes -- George Washington Collins -- Permanent interests: The expansion, organization, and rising influence of African Americans in Congress, 1971-2007 -- Civil rights activism -- Creation and evolution of the Congressional Black Caucus -- Institution advancement -- Member characteristics: electoral longevity -- Seniority and leadership posts -- Legislative interests -- Economic opportunity -- District of Columbia -- Conflicting interests -- Commemorative legislation -- Foreign policy: Africa and apartheid -- Crafting an identity on Capitol Hill -- Conflicting imperatives: black interests vs party agenda -- Investigations, corruption, and race -- Redistricting and "deracialization": opportunities and limits --

FORMER MEMBERS, 1971-2007: Ronald V. Dellums -- Ralph Harold Metcalfe -- Parren James Mitchell -- Walter Edward Fauntroy -- Yvonne Brathwaite Burke -- Barbara Jordan -- Andrew Jackson Young, Jr. -- Cardiss Collins -- Harold Eugene Ford, Sr. -- Julian Carey Dixon -- Melvin Herbert Evans -- William Herbert Gray, III -- George Thomas (Mickey) Leland -- Bennett McVey Stewart -- George William Crockett, Jr. -- Mervyn Malcolm Dymally -- Gus Savage -- Harold Washington -- Katie Beatrice Hall -- Major Robert Odell Owens -- Alan Dupree Wheat -- Charles Arthur Hayes -- Alton R. Waldon, Jr. -- Alphonso Michael (Mike) Espy -- Floyd Harold Flake -- -- Kweisi Mfume -- Craig Anthony Washington -- Barbara-Rose Collins -- Gary A. Franks -- Lucien Edward Blackwell -- Eva M. Clayton -- Cleo Fields -- Earl Frederick Hilliard -- Cynthia Ann McKinney -- Carrie P. Meek -- Carol Moseley-Braun -- Mel Reynolds -- Walter R. Tucker, III -- Victor O. Frazer -- Julius Caesar (J. C.) Watts, Jr. -- Juanita Millender-McDonald -- Julia May Carson -- Harold Ford., Jr. -- Frank W. Ballance, Jr. -- Denise L. Majette --

PT. 2. CURRENT BLACK-AMERICAN MEMBERS. Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. -- Corrine Brown -- G. K. Butterfield -- Donna M. Christensen -- William L. Clay, Jr. -- Emanuel Cleaver, II -- James E. Clyburn -- John Conyers, Jf. -- Elijah E. Cummings -- Artur Davis -- Danny K. Davis -- Chaka Fattah -- Al Green -- Alcee Hastings -- Jesse Jackson, Jr. -- Sheila Jackson Lee -- William J. Jefferson -- Eddie Bernice Johnson -- Stephanie Tubbs Jones -- Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick -- Barbara Lee -- John Lewis -- Kendrick B. Meek -- Gregory W. Meeks -- Gwendolynne S. (Gwen) Moore -- Eleanor Holmes Norton -- Barack Obama -- Donald M. Payne -- Charles B. Rangel -- Bobby L. Rush -- David Scott -- Robert C. Scott -- Bennie Thompson -- Edolphus Towns -- Maxine Waters -- Diane Edith Watson -- Melvin L. Watt -- Albert R. Wynn -- Yvette Clarke -- Keith Ellison -- Hank Johnson -- Laura Richardson -- Black-American representatives and senators by congress, 1870-2007 -- Black members' committee assignments (standing, joint, select) in the U.S. House and Senate, 1870-2007 -- Black Americans who have chaired congressional committees, 1977-2007 -- Black Americans in party leadership positions, 1977-2007 -- Congressional black caucus chairmen and chairwomen, 1971-2007 -- Constitutional amendments and major civil rights acts of congress referenced in the text.