As a former history teacher, U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn believes American history is repeating itself — and not in a good way.
Clyburn, a Democrat from South Carolina, is the ninth Black representative sent to Congress from South Carolina. He has written a new book about his predecessors called The First Eight.
“If you just look at the timeline, what has happened to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, along with the scrutinization of DEI programs, and the undercutting of the 1965 Voting Rights Act,” the evidence is clear, he said in a recent interview.
“When you see all of this taking place, you’d better think we are back where we once were as a country.”
And the lesson is clear: “When I was teaching history to young people down in Charleston, I used to say to them all the time — so many people saw history as being boring and a waste of time — I used to tell them anything that’s happened before can happen again. And it looks like I’m living to see it happening today.”
Since his arrival in Congress in 1992, Clyburn has been a vocal critic of former presidents and even criticized his own party at times, but when asked where he sees the Democratic Party headed today, he seems optimistic.
“Who would’ve predicted the results in New Jersey and Virginia, New York and Mississippi and Georgia,” he said of recent elections. “I don’t think anybody would’ve predicted the result that just occurred in Indiana. The reason I guess I maintain faith is because one of the Scriptures I remember and still recite often is found in the book of Hebrews, the 11th chapter and the first verse: ‘Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence, of things unseen.’ I maintain hope, and I know I may not be able to see it, but as my dad used to say all the time, ‘The darkest moment of the night is that moment just before dawn.’
“I see all darkness as being the moment just before dawn. I do believe people are waking up. They’re waking up and I think that’s what we’ve seen in those recent elections.”
Of his political party, he said: “The Democrats give you the best avenue to leave your children and grandchildren a pursuit toward a more perfect union. If you’ve got the head of one party insulting people every day, most especially your ancestors, the countries they came from — there’s not an African American woman who speaks up in this country that this guy had not taken a shot at. Nobody in the Democratic Party is doing that.”
On the Republican side of the aisle, Rep. Marjorie Greene Taylor recently resigned and returned home to Georgia. “I believe she saw something that she knew that she could no longer go along with,” Clyburn explained.
Robert Smalls (Wikpedia)
The stories of the eight Black U.S. representatives who preceded him also come from some of the darkest moments of American history, he said. His hero Robert Smalls gives him the faith and strength to keep serving.
“Smalls was the most consequential Black South Carolinian who ever lived. He was No. 6 on this list of eight. There’s nobody in the history of South Carolina whose life was more consequential to the state and nation as Robert Smalls, who was born enslaved and got his freedom in the most celebrated way, pulling off an escape nobody could ever imagine. He got his freedom to develop great wealth, became the first Black captain in the Navy. He was made captain of the ship he had stolen and escaped to, and he built his wealth, went back to his hometown of Beaufort, and with that wealth, he bought the house he had been enslaved in and was benevolent enough to bring the widow of his enslaver back into that house and kept her there until she died.
Clyburn also draws inspiration from the words of his father: “What we have to do is practice religion, as my father taught me to practice it. He would always say, ‘Pray every day for good health and strength and if the Good Lord gives you some of both, get up off your knees and go to work. Be an instrument of God’s peace.’
“That’s the way I approach my life. That’s the way I approach politics, making myself an instrument. I’ve got enough good health and enough strength, and I’m going to put it to work, to be an instrument of God’s peace. I do believe that’s what the coming election is all about, a continuance of our trek to make a more perfect union.”