Ashland. Henry clays home in lexington, kentucky, and for the next 90 minutes we will explore the life and legacy of this man, unsuccessful in his long quest for the white house, yet having an outsized influence on American History. And we are in henry clays parlor r parlor right now. Let me introduce you to jim plotter, historian. Thank you for being with us. Good to be here. Why is he relevant to americans living in our time . On a couple of accounts, his famous quote, i would rather be right than be president. Its a call to people whatever were doing, which is to do the right thing. In a sense, politicians need to remember the country and sacrifice for the country and i think that is still something that we need to remember, as well and the man known as the great compromiser, and a man that forges these compromises that not only kept the nation together, but were constructive and those are the kinds of things we need to remember about henry clay as well as the things that he did in
Available as a podcast. Find it where you listen to podcasts. Next on American History tvs american artifacts, we visit the Canon House Office building to see artifacts that tell the story of africanamericans in congress in the 20th century. Im sarah elliott, the curator at the house of representatives. And im matt rauz nwasniewsk. We want to talk about africanamerican representation in the 20th century, and we have a lot of artifacts from the house collection that have to do with that and a lot of history to cover. And the last africanamerican sort of to be elected in the 19th century leaves in 1901, george white of north carolina, and then its a long time before another africanamerican comes into the house. Thats is Oscar Depriest from illinois. We have a couple really rare artifacts from Oscar Depriest from the 1920s and 30s, but before i launch into them because i love them so much, matt, tell us a little bit about oscar and how he got into congress. So theres a long period, almost
We know he did and he was attempting to put a marker down. This wont be forgotten and will come back. In the center we have the two africanamerican to served in the senate. By the muchrounded larger numbers of African Americans who served in the house. There is joseph rainey, the first africanamerican in the house. And it takes it all the way around to all of them who were there. I find it so poignant in that, when this was printed no one knew how long would it be. Did they think 20 years would be a long time . Did they think it would be just a moment. What did happen in this print it looks terribly damaged, like it has had a hard life. As if at some point someone took this and pasted it on probably a wall. Underneath that is wallpaper. Underneath the print and on top of the board is wallpaper. It was perhaps painted on someones wall. In sort of recognition of the things that happened. We acquired it in d. C. It may have never left the nations capital, unlike black representation that
Tvs american artifacts we visit the Cannon House Office building to see artifacts that tell the story of africanamericans in congress in the 20th century. Im farar elliott. And im matt waz knsniewski. We wanted to talk about africanamerican representation in the 20th century. We have a lot of artifacts from the house collection that have to do with that and a lot of history to cover. And the last africanamerican to be elected in the 19th century leaves in 1901, george white of north carolina. And then its a long time before another africanamerican comes into the house. And that is Oscar Depriest from illinois. And we have a couple of really rare artifacts from Oscar Depriest from the 1920s and 30s. But before i launch into them, because i love them so much, matt, tell us a little bit about Oscar Depriest and how he got into congress. So, theres a long period, almost three decades, after George Henry White leaves congress where theres no africanamericans who serve in either the house or
20th century. We have a lot of artifacts from the house collection and have to do with that. And a lot of history to cover. And, the last africanamerican to be elected to the 19th century was 1901, george white of north carolina, and that was a long time before another africanamerican comes into the house. And we have a couple of where artifacts from the 19 twenties and thirties. But before i launch into that, because i love them so much. Tell us a little bit about oscar priest and how he got into congress. Theres a long period, almost three decades after George Henry White where there is no African Americans who served in the house or senate. That has everything to do with the gym crow laws that them go on the books in the south. The way that that changes over time during those decades, there is a critical thing going on in the south where African Americans begin to leave the cell and move northward as part of a multi decade movement that would later be called the great migration. Tha