Franchise Players

When Congressman James Clyburn (D-SC) sat down with Congressman Steven Horsford (D-NV) for a conversation and book signing on an evening in June, the subject was history — but the urgency was entirely of the moment. 

Clyburn’s new book, “The First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressmen Who Shaped a Nation,” tells the story of the eight Black men elected to Congress from South Carolina in the years following the Civil War. It also grapples with a quieter, more troubling question: why did it take more than a century for Clyburn himself to become the ninth? 

The discussion drew a direct line between Reconstruction-era struggles for representation and the voting rights battles playing out across the country today. And the conversation was as much a call to action as a history lesson — a reminder that the franchise, once it is won, is not necessarily permanent.