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After Union victories ended the Civil War in the spring of 1865, the United States faced the difficult task of creating a truly united nation. Among the challenges was the integration of a newly freed black population into a Southern society that had fought a devastating war to prevent just that result. Influenced by racist ideologies and a history of legalized oppression, Southern legislatures, led by Mississippi, began passing restrictive legislation that left former slaves in essentially the same conditions, practically speaking, as they had endured under slavery. These so-called Black Codes took hold across the South, effectively denying African Americans many civil rights and creating a racially discriminatory society. After Radical Republicans in Congress took control of Reconstruction, the Northern officials who managed Southern governments declared most of these codes invalid. However, they provided a model for the later “Jim Crow” laws that kept African Americans in a position of second-class citizenship for many decades.

The Congressional Black Caucus, a group comprising African American members of the US Congress, was established in 1970 by thirteen members of the House of Representatives who joined together “to promote the public welfare through legislation designed to meet the needs of millions of neglected citizens.” Before that year, the House had never had so many African Americans among its 435 members, yet thirteen was still a small minority. The founders of the Congressional Black Caucus hoped that they could gain more visibility and power working together than they could acting alone. Congressional Black Caucus