Visualize the 117th Senate and its members, and compare it with past congresses
As Joe Biden is inaugurated as America's 46th President, browse his votes as a U.S. Senator
Joseph Rainey (R-SC), born into slavery, was the first African-American elected to the House of Representatives.
The Senate passed the Equal Rights Amendment 91-9, but an insufficient number of state legislatures subsequently ratified it.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibited racial discrimination in voting by protecting voting rights. It banned poll taxes and literacy tests and required states with historians of Jim Crow discrimination to seek advance clearance before changing and requiring states with histories of Jim Crow discrimination to obtain advance clearance to change laws governing voting.