Updated November 25, 2025 at 8:17 PM EST
Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina has spent more than three decades in Congress, and he's adamant about one point: he is not the first Black congressman to serve from his state. Eight others, largely erased from public discourse, served during and after Reconstruction, clearing a path that made his tenure possible.
A framed image of the eight's portraits hangs in his office. Over the years, Clyburn says that image sparked what ultimately led him to write The First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressmen Who Shaped a Nation. The book, which was published this month, restores these men to the historical record and draws lessons from their lives.
Morning Edition host Michel Martin spoke with Clyburn about the book and what he hopes readers will learn.
Here are our four key insights:
The remarkable arc of Robert Smalls' ascent into politics
One of the most important figures in the book is Robert Smalls, born into slavery in Beaufort, South Carolina. In 1862, while working aboard the Confederate transport ship Planter, Smalls seized an opportunity: he smuggled his family among the crew, commandeered the vessel and delivered it to Union forces in Charleston Harbor.
"While he was on that waterfront, people noticed that he had leadership skills," Clyburn said." This led to Smalls being entrusted with the crew on the nights when the Confederate men who ran the ship left to go into town.
"Well, one day when they were gone, Smalls smuggled his wife onto the ship and took off," Clyburn recalled of Smalls' escape and the daring start to his political career.
"His reward was his freedom. Everybody on the ship got their freedom and he got 1500 bucks in cash," Clyburn said. "And he [Smalls] became the first African American captain in the U.S. Navy."
George Washington Murray's battles changed the direction of the book
Another of the "first eight," George Washington Murray, served as the only Black representative in the 53rd and 54th Congresses. He faced cases of congressional map redistricting and of voter fraud in precincts that discriminated against African Americans.
Clyburn said that writing about Murray's experience changed the direction of The First Eight.
"When I saw what was happening after the 2020 elections, someone had taken the playbook from the 1876 election," he said. "The book was going to be just to inform people about these guys, but then it got to the point that it was, 'no, it's got to be more instructive than informant' and so I almost started over with the book."
Clyburn says he has not decided whether he'll run again
Recently, the chairman of the S.C. Freedom Caucus, Jordan Pace, unveiled what he calls a "race agnostic" proposal for redrawing the district that Clyburn has long held. The congressman does not consider proposals such as that or his age, 85, as deterrents for a possible next campaign. Instead, his family members will soon be the ones to weigh in on his political plans at their annual family summit, which they've hosted since 1972.
"I feel great. I still can play 36 holes of golf in one day," Clyburn said. "And I can tell you, none of the voters down there are asking me to leave. In fact, just the opposite, they want the benefit of that experience."
4. Read the history of these congressmen as cautionary tale
For Clyburn, the history of the first eight congressmen in South Carolina, carries more than inspiration.
"Anything that's happened before can happen again," he said. "And so you cannot allow this President [Trump], with this majority in the Congress, to cause you to react to their foolishness, because that's what happened before and it will happen again if you aren't careful."
He said that when he last spoke to former President Joe Biden about the rise in African American men voting Republican in the last election, Clyburn told Biden: "I use to say 'there's no substitute for substance,' but I don't say that anymore because people seem to be more attracted by style these days than substance. And so that's one of the things that I talk about in this book."
The digital version of this interview was edited by Majd Al-Waheidi.
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