Congressional Black Caucus

The Congressional Black Caucus emerged as a result of centuries of African Americans' determination and perseverance to obtain their freedom from enslavement and their right to enfranchisement. The United States was founded by people who sought to create a country ruled by a constitution rather than a king and who believed in the principle of freedom from governmental tyranny. However, the founding fathers continuously professed but rarely practiced the doctrine of freedom, liberty, and justice for all. These rights were largely absent from the lives of the majority of the population; when the constitution was ratified, only white property-owning men, 3% of the population, were granted the right to vote in state and federal elections. At that time, African Americans were enslaved. The Constitution neglected other groups and prevented nonproperty-owning white men, white women, Native Americans, free African Americans, and other racial groups from experiencing the power of voting for an elected official; it also neglected to abolish the institution of enslavement. Due to this reality, African Americans had to actively and continuously fight to obtain not only their freedom from enslavement but also their right of enfranchisement.

[Page 194]African American men fought bravely in the Civil War for both the Union and Confederate armies in the hope of obtaining their freedom and equal citizenship. However, both the Union and the Confederacy used African American soldiers in their political plan to control the United States, without any intention of granting them anything in return. In addition, on August 5, 1862, President Lincoln was quoted in the New York Times as having said that if he could unify the country without freeing Africans from enslavement, he would. Despite Lincoln's racism and reluctance to end the institution of slavery, on January 1, 1863, all slaves in states that were in rebellion against the Union were freed, and 2 years later, on December 6, 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified and enslavement was abolished.