We may receive an affiliate commission from anything you buy from this article. In "The First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressmen Who Shaped a Nation" (Little, Brown & Co.), South Carolina Democrat Jim Clyburn, the ninth Black man to represent his state in the House of Representatives, writes of his predecessors who helped direct the course of America during and after Reconstruction. Read an excerpt below, and don't miss Robert Costa's interview with Congressman