Two years later in Rainey was elected to a four-year term in the state senate where he soon became the Chairman of the Finance Committee. His tenure in the South Carolina State Senate was brief. Whittemore resigned Rainey won the seat in a special election. Rainey ran for reelection in without opposition. In May he became the first African American representative to preside over a House session.
Richardson for Congress. He held the post until when he returned to Washington, D. His polite and dignified bearing enforces respect. Rainey will not compare with the best men of the House of Representatives, but he is a good average congressman, and stands head and shoulders above the ordinary carpet bagger.
In the U. Senate, Hiram Revels, a freeborn man of color, had taken office in Together, these men grappled with the waves of white supremacist violence roiling the South. They championed provisions of the Ku Klux Klan Act , which called for federal forces to intervene against Klan activity and for federal district attorneys to prosecute the terrorists. Some members of Congress challenged the constitutionality of the act.
Rainey took the floor. The bill was approved and signed by President Grant. Rainey and other Republican leaders soon received copies of an ominous letter written in red ink. We warn you to flee. Each and every one of you are watched each hour.
Still, the coalition of African American representatives continued to grow. Its members debated issues that would determine the future of democracy. In , for instance, Rainey fired back at a white colleague who feared that integrated schools might lead to full social equality between the races.
Sir, this is the remnant of the old pro-slavery spirit, which must eventually give place to more humane and elevating ideas. Schools have been mixed in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and other States, and no detriment has occurred. Why this fear of competition with a negro? All they ask for is an equal chance in life, with equal advantages, and they will prove themselves to be worthy American citizens.
In , Rainey spoke out on behalf of other oppressed minorities, opposing a bill to ban Chinese workers from taking part in a federally funded construction project in San Francisco. On April 29 of that year, Rainey broke new ground. The entire House had gathered as a body to debate the Indian Affairs Bill over several days, and the Speaker of the House invited a sequence of representatives to serve as speaker pro tempore.
Luke Potter Poland, a Republican from Vermont, was presiding when he invited Rainey to take the chair. It was the first time an African American had ever presided over the U. House of Representatives. Joseph H. Rainey, of South Carolina, on Thursday last presided over the deliberations of the House of Representatives The earth continues to revolve on its axis.
Rainey and his colleagues had Northern allies in the Republican Party. One of the most influential, Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, had been an outspoken abolitionist. In , he drafted a civil rights bill with the help of John Mercer Langston, an attorney who founded the law school at Howard University, the first to serve African American students. The bill would have banned discrimination in schools, churches and places of public access such as hotels and trains.
Representative Benjamin Butler, also of Massachusetts, sponsored the bill in the House. A month later, Rainey—who had accompanied the Sumner family to Boston for the burial—gave a stirring speech before Congress, remembering a time when Sumner had nearly lost his life after South Carolina Congressman Preston S.
Brooks assaulted him in the Senate chamber. By that time, Rainey had earned a reputation for forcefully protecting the fledgling democracy in the South. Yet he was concerned enough about violent retaliation that he bought a second home, in Windsor, Connecticut, and his wife and children moved there in the summer of Even so, in a February speech Rainey made it clear that black politicians were not going anywhere.
After Democrats gained control of the House in the election, Republican sponsors rushed to pass the civil rights bill. To gain votes, they removed the integration of schools and churches, the places that drew the fiercest opposition. Personal testimonies from African American members of Congress, and sympathy for the departed Sumner, helped give it traction, and, on March 1, , President Grant signed the Civil Rights Act. It was the final Reconstruction act.
Disgruntled Southern Democrats were already making plans to reverse the progress. By , newly freed African Americans had revitalized the declining town, making it a haven of business and property ownership, and electoral freedom. A town militia protected Hamburg from ex-Confederate vigilante raids. After trying to force the militia to disband and surrender its weapons in court, one of the white travelers returned on the day of the hearing with more than men and a cannon.
Home United States U. Africa 54 - November 12, VOA Africa Listen live. VOA Newscasts Latest program. VOA Newscasts. Previous Next. February 25, AM. But the bank failed in Though Rainey won re-election without opposition in , his subsequent campaigns were more competitive. The election cycle occurred during an extraordinarily violent year across the South.
In one instance, as Rainey traveled between campaign stops, he was warned of a group of armed Democrats outside Bennettsville, South Carolina. More than 50 Republicans joined him in anticipation of a violent confrontation.
Rainey recalled that only the presence of federal troops prevented hostilities. Richardson for a seat in the 45th Congress — , winning a tight race with 52 percent of the vote. The House seated Rainey, but in May the Democratic majority on the Committee on Elections judged that the presence of federal troops in the state unduly influenced the outcome of the election.
Although the committee declared the seat vacant, the full House failed to act on the committee report and Rainey kept his seat for the remainder of the term. In Richardson challenged Rainey again—this time bolstered by a concerted effort by Democrats to suppress Republican votes.
Richardson defeated Rainey with nearly 62 percent of the vote. House of Representatives, but the Democratic majority in the 46th Congress — elected its candidate instead. Treasury Department in South Carolina.
Rainey managed a wood and coal business with a partner before returning to Georgetown, South Carolina, where he died on August 1, Whittemore , 41st Cong. Dubin, U. Rainey , 44th Cong. View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.
Holt, Thomas.
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