Honorable James E. Clyburn
Congressman Clyburn has represented South Carolina's Sixth Congressional District since 1993. In 2006, the House Democratic Caucus unanimously elected him Majority Whip, the third ranking position in the U.S. House of Representatives. Clyburn is the first South Carolinian and the second African American to be elected Majority Whip.
Clyburn grew up in Sumter, where he was elected president of his NAACP youth chapter at age 12. At South Carolina State College, he was active in civil rights demonstrations. He (and wife Emily England) were among 388 college students arrested for civil disobedience. Clyburn was a witness in landmark civil rights cases.
Clyburn began his career as a history teacher in Charleston and then served as an employment counselor, youth program director, and head of a migrant farm workers’ program.
In 1970, Clyburn ran for the South Carolina House of Representatives, losing a close race. Governor John West asked him to join his administration. Clyburn was the first African American advisor to a South Carolina governor since post Reconstruction. Four years later, Governor West appointed Clyburn Human Affairs Commissioner.
In 1992, Clyburn resigned as Human Affairs Commissioner to run for Congress -- where no African American from South Carolina had served since 1897. He won the primary with 56 percent of the vote and easily won the general election. He was sworn in as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in January 1993.
Six years later, he was elected Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and to a seat on Appropriations Committee. In 2002, he was elected Vice Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, becoming Chair in 2006.
Clyburn's district, the Sixth Congressional District, includes all or part of 15 counties, reaching from Columbia east to Marion County and south to Colleton County.
