Subjects – Sumner, Charles
South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks’s attack on Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts
May 22, 1856
On this date, Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina, accompanied by Representative Laurence Keitt of South Carolina, severely beat Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a cane in the Senate Chamber.
The funeral of Representative Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania
August 13, 1868
On this date, Pennsylvania Representative Thaddeus Stevens was honored with a state funeral in the Capitol Rotunda.
South Carolina Representative Robert Elliott’s rousing oratory
January 06, 1874
On this date, Representative Robert Elliott of South Carolina, one of seven African-American Members of the 43rd Congress (1873–1875), delivered his famous rebuttal to an address made by U.S. Representative Alexander Stephens of Georgia, the former Vice President of the Confederacy.
The Civil Rights Act of 1875
February 04, 1875
On this date, the House passed the Civil Rights Act of 1875 by a vote of 162 to 99.
The appointment of William H. Smith as House Librarian
December 09, 1881
On this date, William Henry Smith—a prominent African-American Washingtonian—was appointed Librarian of the House.