Speaker Nancy Pelosi was joined Thursday by Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA), members of Congress and the family of Joseph Rainey, to honor the House’s first African American member and to designate a room in the U.S. Capitol in his name.
Rainey was born an enslaved man and went on to become the first African American member of the House of Representatives, serving from 1870-1879.