February 12, 1865

On this date, Preacher Henry Highland Garnet became the first African American to speak in the House Chamber when he addressed a crowd of worshippers. A common practice for the period, the House Chamber was often used by large groups in the Capitol Hill area when the House was not in session. House Chaplain William Henry Channing invited Garnet to commemorate the House’s approval of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery. Garnet spoke to a crowded chamber complete with a choir from his Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church. While a religious sermon in context, Garnet challenged Congress to “Emancipate, Enfranchise, and to Educate.” The oratory received mixed reviews from the newspapers. The Washington Daily Times called it “shameful” while the Weekly Anglo-African referred to it as “dazzling.” Prior to Garnet’s sermon, African Americans had been banned from both congressional chambers since the late 1820s. In 1869, John W. Menard became the first black man to address a session of the House in his contested election case. In 1871, Representative Jefferson Long of Georgia became the first black Member of Congress to address the House in session, when he opposed an Amnesty Bill granting Confederates full political rights.

February 18, 1797

On this date, John Bell, the 23rd Speaker of the House was born near Nashville, Tennessee. Before his congressional career in the House and Senate, he worked as a lawyer and briefly served in the Tennessee state senate. In 1827, Bell began the first of seven terms in the House of Representatives. Initially elected as a Jacksonian, he later switched affiliations and joined the Whig Party. During his congressional tenure, he chaired the Committee on Indian Affairs and the Committee on the Judiciary. Elected Speaker of the House for the 23rd Congress (1833–1835), Bell defeated fellow Tennessee Congressman and future President James K. Polk for the coveted leadership position. In the subsequent Congress, Polk beat out Bell for the speakership. Bell chose not to seek re-election to the 27th Congress (1841–1843) and instead accepted a place on President William Henry Harrison’s cabinet as Secretary of War; he resigned a few months after the death of Harrison in 1841 when President John Tyler refused to embrace a Whig agenda. Bell returned to Congress when he won election to the Senate; he served two terms from 1847 to 1859 as a member of three political parties: Whig, Opposition, and Know-Nothing. In 1860, the former Speaker made an unsuccessful run for President on the Constitutional Union Party ticket. Bell died on September 10, 1869, at his Tennessee home on the banks of the Cumberland River. “I always found him to be a man of decided talent, a patriot and lover of his country,” fellow Tennessean and former President Andrew Johnson eulogized.

February 15, 1923

On this date, Representatives Alice Robertson of Oklahoma, Mae Nolan of California, and Winnifred Mason Huck of Illinois posed on the front steps of the House entrance of the U.S. Capitol. For the first time in congressional history, three women served in the House. Elected to the 67th Congress (1921–1923), the first Congress since women gained the right to vote nationally, their service in Congress was notable but brief. Robertson served only one term, but became the first woman to preside over the House. Huck was the first woman to succeed her father in Congress. Of these women pioneers, Nolan was arguably the most noteworthy: the first widow to succeed her husband in Congress; the first woman to serve multiple terms; and the first to chair a House committee—Expenditures in the Post Office Department. As pioneers, all three were media curiosities. Robertson was by far the most colorful and quotable. Robertson said shortly after here 1920 election, “I would rather be like a humble little light that shines a long distance across the prairies than a brilliant sky rocket that flashes in midair for a few seconds and then falls to the earth with a dull thud. If people think that I am going to do something sensational they are mistaken. I am a conservative.”