Visualize the 117th House and its members, and compare it with past congresses
Learn the story of a place through the people that represented it through history
Use the 'tabular view' to quickly check NOMINATE scores
Joseph Rainey (R-SC), born into slavery, was the first African-American elected to the House of Representatives.
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.