"C" is for Clyburn, James E. (b. 1940)

"C" is for Clyburn, James E. (b. 1940). Congressman. A native of Sumter, Clyburn graduated from South Carolina State College. He has had an extensive public career. From 1971 to 1974, he served on Governor John West’s staff. In 1974, Governor West appointed him as South Carolina human affairs commissioner—a position he held for eighteen years under both Democratic and Republican governors. In 1992 Clyburn was elected to Congress from the newly reconfigured “majority minority” Sixth District. In 1998 he was elected chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. In 2005 he was elected chair of the House Democratic Caucus, and when Democrats regained the House majority in 2006, his colleagues elevated him to the position of House Majority Whip. In 2015 James E. Clyburn published his memoir, Blessed Experiences: Genuinely Southern, Proudly Black.