Oct 5, 2008
Black Americans in Congress
The House Clerk's Office has launched its latest topflight historical website, this one dealing with Black Americans in Congress. The site accompanies publication of a volume profiling all black Americans to have served in Congress. (The Clerk's Office has produced a similar volume on women in Congress.)
The site serves as a model of how the web can make political history widely accessibly to the public. It contains in-depth profiles of every black congressman and senator; well-researched historical data; intriguing historical artifacts; overview essays; and, perhaps most important, educational sections geared toward high school teachers.
I have been critical of the House's Office of the Historian--whose head, Robert Remini, was profiled in a March 2008 Chicago Tribune article as working not in Washington in the Office of Historian but in Chicago, as a"professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago."
As a historian of Congress who tries hard to integrate congressional material into my general U.S. political and diplomatic history classes, it is encouraging to see that the Clerk's Office has taken up the slack left by Remini. My sense is that this high-quality website and publication will have a particular use for educators.
I'm (professionally) acquainted with the editor of the book (Matt Wasniewski), who I invited to serve as one of the co-editors to a (stillborn, unfortunately) Encyclopedia of US Congress. Also, while I have been strongly critical of Remini, I did not apply for the House Historian's position, nor would I do so in the future.
The site serves as a model of how the web can make political history widely accessibly to the public. It contains in-depth profiles of every black congressman and senator; well-researched historical data; intriguing historical artifacts; overview essays; and, perhaps most important, educational sections geared toward high school teachers.
I have been critical of the House's Office of the Historian--whose head, Robert Remini, was profiled in a March 2008 Chicago Tribune article as working not in Washington in the Office of Historian but in Chicago, as a"professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago."
As a historian of Congress who tries hard to integrate congressional material into my general U.S. political and diplomatic history classes, it is encouraging to see that the Clerk's Office has taken up the slack left by Remini. My sense is that this high-quality website and publication will have a particular use for educators.
I'm (professionally) acquainted with the editor of the book (Matt Wasniewski), who I invited to serve as one of the co-editors to a (stillborn, unfortunately) Encyclopedia of US Congress. Also, while I have been strongly critical of Remini, I did not apply for the House Historian's position, nor would I do so in the future.