The De Priest House: Breaking Congress's Color Line

On the South Side of Chicago, a modest brick apartment building on King Drive marks one of the most significant political milestones in American history. The building was completed in nineteen twenty, and from nineteen twenty-nine to nineteen fifty-one one of its units was home to Oscar Stanton De Priest. The son of formerly enslaved parents, De Priest had come to Chicago from Alabama and risen to become the city's first Black alderman.

In nineteen twenty-eight he was elected to the United States House of Representatives from Illinois's First Congressional District, becoming the first African American elected to Congress from a northern state, and the first Black member of Congress in twenty-eight years. He served three terms, advocating loudly for anti-lynching legislation and equal rights. The building was designated a National Historic Landmark in nineteen seventy-five.