The Honorable James E. Clyburn
Congressman, Majority Whip, South Carolina
James E. Clyburn was elected president of his NAACP youth chapter when he was 12 years old, participated in many marches and demonstrations, and was chosen as the star witness in a 1960 Orangeburg civil disobedience case defended by the legendary Matthew Perry.
Jim began his professional life in Charleston, South Carolina, as a history teacher in the public school system. Jim later served as an employment counselor, and director of two youth and community development programs. In 1968, he became director of a migrant and seasonal farm workers program.
Jim launched the pursuit of his dream of serving the public in 1970 running for the South Carolina House of Representatives. He went to bed a 500-vote winner, and awoke a 500-vote loser. His pragmatic reaction as reported in the local newspaper, “I lost because I didn’t get enough votes,” caught the eye of the newly elected governor, John Carl West. He asked James, whom he dubbed “Jim,” to join his administration. In accepting the post, James E. Clyburn became the first African American advisor to a South Carolina governor since post Reconstruction.
After almost four years on his staff, Governor West appointed Jim as Commissioner of South Carolina’s Human Affairs Commission. It was a position he would hold for almost 18 years serving four Governors -- two Democrats and two Republicans. The position thrust Jim into the vortex of a number of controversies, which he handled deftly quickly earning him a reputation as a fair and firm mediator and consensus builder. But when he ran for South Carolina Secretary of State in 1978 and again in 1986, his lifelong dream continued to elude him.
But in 1992, Jim resigned his position as Human Affairs Commissioner to devote full-time effort in pursuit of his lifelong dream of serving in the United States Congress -- where no black South Carolinian had served since 1897. This time, in a field of five Democratic primary candidates, Clyburn won with 56 percent of the vote, avoiding a run-off. He easily won the general election for South Carolina’s Sixth Congressional District, and was sworn in as a member of the United States House of Representatives in January 1993.
Congressman Clyburn began his steady climb on Capitol Hill winning election as co-President of his freshman class. Six years later, he was unanimously elected Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and to a seat on the coveted Appropriations Committee. In 2002, he was elected in a three-way race to serve as Vice Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, and in January 2006, his peers unanimously elevated him to Chair of the Caucus.
In addition to serving as House Majority Whip, Congressman Clyburn serves as leader of the House Democrat’s Faith Working Group. Clyburn and his wife, Emily have three daughters, Mignon, Angela and Jennifer Clyburn Reed, a son-in-law, Walter Reed; and two grandchildren, Walter A. Clyburn Reed and Sydney Alexis Reed.
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
