2-907-872 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Joseph H. Rainey, between 1860 and 1875. [Politician, barber, banker. Born into slavery, he was the first black person to serve in the United States House of Representatives and the second black person (after Hiram Revels) to serve in the United States Congress. During the Civil War he was conscripted by the Confederates to work on fortifications in Charleston. Escaped to Bermuda and worked as a barber; supported legislation that became known as the Enforcement Acts, to suppress the violent activities of the Ku Klux Klan; supported what was finally passed as the Civil Rights Act of 1875].