Joseph Hayne Rainey

Joseph Hayne Rainey, taken between 1865 and 1880

Joseph Hayne Rainey (born June 21, 1832 in Georgetown , South Carolina , † August 1, 1887 ibid) was the first black American who got a seat in the United States House of Representatives , and the second African American in Congress after Hiram Rhodes Revels .

Young years and civil war

Rainey was born in Georgetown. His parents were both slaves . His father Edward had a successful barber business. He made enough money to buy himself and his family out shortly after Joseph Rainey was born. As Rainey got older, he became a barber like his father. In 1859 he married his wife Susan. When the civil war broke out in 1861 , he was drafted into service in the south. First he worked on the fortifications of Charleston , then as a worker on a blockade breaker .

In 1862 he and his wife were able to settle in Bermuda . They settled in the city of Saint George’s , which was an important transshipment point for blockade breakers during the war. Rainey worked there again as a barber, his wife was successful as a tailor. When a yellow fever epidemic broke out in 1865 , the couple moved to Hamilton . There, too, he worked as a barber and barman at the Hotel Hamilton and became a respected member of the community.

Political career

When the Civil War ended in 1866, the couple returned to South Carolina. He immediately became active in politics and became a member of the Executive Committee of the Republican Party . In 1868 he became a member of the commission that should draft the new constitution of South Carolina. In 1870 he was elected to the Senate of South Carolina , in the same year the Republicans sent him to Congress in Washington . The position had become vacant because his predecessor Benjamin F. Whittemore was not accepted by Congress because of corruption. Rainey was sustained on December 12, 1870, and was re-elected four times. He retired on March 3, 1879, and was the longest-serving black MP until William L. Dawson in the 1950s.

During his tenure in Congress, Rainey focused on legislation to protect blacks living in the south. The fight was ultimately in vain, with the Reconstruction the blacks lost almost all political power.

In 1876, Rainey won the election against Democratic candidate John S. Richardson . He challenged the election because soldiers and black militias should have intimidated the voters. When the Reconstruction had reached South Carolina politics two years later , Richardson was able to conquer the seat.

Withdrawal from politics

After leaving Congress, Joseph Rainey was appointed auditor for South Carolina. He held this position for two years, after which he went into the private sector. Rainey retired in 1886 and died the following year in Georgetown, where he was also born.

On September 21, 2005, he became the first black man whose portrait was hung in the House of Representatives.

Web links

• Joseph Hayne Rainey in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Detailed biography of Joseph Rainey
• A description by Joseph Rainey
• A speech by Rainey regarding the threat posed by the Ku Klux Klan
• Picture with CV of Joseph Rainey