Skip Navigation

From Enslaved To Congress: The Life Of Joseph Rainey

think.kera.org 13

School children are taught about Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Rosa Parks – but there are many lesser-known Black leaders who paved the way for their success. Bobby J. Donaldson is director of the Center for Civil Rights History and Research at the University of South Carolina, and he joins host Krys Boyd to profile a man who was born enslaved before being elected to Congress in the wake of the Civil War. His article in Smithsonian Magazine, co-authored by Christopher Frear, is headlined “Meet Joseph Rainey, The First Black Congressman.”