Congressional Black Caucus

By: Alonford James Robinson

Source:

 Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, Second Edition

Congressional Black Caucus

Coalition of black members of the Congress of the United States committed to promoting and protecting policies favorable to the African American community.

South African human rights activist Bishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu once said, “Politics is the art of the possible.” But for much of U.S. history, blacks were shut out of political life. Before the American Civil War, when most African Americans were enslaved, blacks were legally prohibited from voting and from holding political office, and were punished for participating in public protest. Political participation by blacks did not become legal until the Reconstruction period and passage of the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1870, giving black men the right to vote. Even then, black suffrage was weakened by officially sanctioned racial discrimination.

During Reconstruction, sixteen African Americans were elected to Congress and over 600 to state legislatures. But by 1877 many newly granted political rights were being rescinded by state officials; black political representation declined so sharply that by 1900 only one black member remained in Congress. In the words of white historian Eric Foner, “In illiteracy, malnutrition, inadequate housing, and a host of other burdens, blacks paid the highest price for the end of Reconstruction.” Blacks did not attain a level of political representation in Congress that even approached nineteenth-century levels for another ninety-two years.

In 1969 the nine blacks then in Congress were isolated and powerless, unable to prevent passage of legislation detrimental to African Americans and other minorities. That year, Representative Charles Diggs, a black Democrat from Michigan, formed the Democratic Select Committee, with the belief that a unified black voice could exert a measure of political influence in Congress. The committee investigated the murders of several Black Panther Party members in Chicago, Illinois, and defeated the nomination of conservative judge Clement Haynesworth to the Supreme Court. The potential strength of a collective black voice was evident as soon as the committee was formed. On June 18, 1971, at its first annual dinner, the Democratic Select Committee was reorganized as the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) with Representative Diggs as its first chairperson.

Black conservatives immediately challenged the caucus's presumption in representing the entire black community. White liberals discounted the caucus's political effectiveness, and white conservatives labeled caucus members radicals and militants. During a trip to Africa, U.S. vice president Spiro Agnew derogated the caucus by advising its members to take notice of the behavior of their African brethren, adding that they could learn much from the Africans.

Despite opposition, the CBC gained national attention in 1971, when its members presented President Richard Nixon with a list of sixty recommendations concerning foreign and domestic issues. In 1972 the caucus was one of the sponsors of the National Black Political Convention held in Gary, Indiana. That year, at the national convention of the Democratic Party, the caucus drafted the Black Declaration of Independence, which urged the Democratic Party to commit itself to effecting complete racial equality. It also drafted the Black Bill of Rights, demanding, among other things, full employment and an end to subversive American military activity in Africa.

In 1976 the caucus established the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, a nonprofit public policy, research, and educational institute. Later that year, the caucus established the Congressional Black Caucus Graduate Intern Program to increase the number of African American professionals working for congressional committees. One year later, the caucus formed TransAfrica, an organization that lobbied on behalf of African interests. The caucus and TransAfrica, under the leadership of Randall Robinson, worked actively to secure economic sanctions against the Apartheid regime in South Africa, to help build political stability in Haiti, and to establish a national holiday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.

Among those chairing the Congressional Black Caucus have been Democratic representatives Diggs, Louis Stokes from Ohio, Ronald V. Dellums from California, Charles Bernard Rangel from New York, and Kweisi Mfume from Maryland. As its membership grew, the caucus developed broad support among black state legislators, black businesses, and black academics. These contributed to the unprecedented 1992 election of forty African Americans to Congress. In 1993 Carol Moseley-Braun, from Illinois, became the fourth African American, and the first African American woman, to be elected to the U.S. Senate.

Although the CBC was divided on issues such as the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the organization's relationship with the Nation of Islam, it provided a clear and unified voice on issues such as crime, welfare, and housing. The Congressional Black Caucus stood at the forefront of African American leadership in the U.S. Congress for twenty-four years before it was stripped of federal funding in 1994. Despite this loss, the CBC has continued to work for African American interests and to serve as the “conscience of Congress.” Among its most influential acts each year is the alternative budget that it presents to Congress, outlining funding programs to address the needs of minorities and the poor.

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