GEORGETOWN, SC (WBTW) – As black history month continues, we honor local heroes who shaped our story here in the Palmetto State. The former home of the America’s first black congressman still stands in Georgetown and News 13 went to visit and learn more about this influential man.
“He was born a slave in Georgetown, but his father was able to buy their freedom,” said Jan McGinty of the Georgetown County Museum. It was an unusual start for Joseph Hayne Rainey to a legendary South Carolina life.
As a freed black in the 1830s, Rainey lived at 909 Prince Street in Georgetown.
“It allowed him to have more privileges than the average,” McGinty explained.
The Georgetown County Museum is hosting an exhibit on Georgetown’s black history. McGinty said Rainey’s status put him in a unique position. Freed blacks were envied by slaves, and despised by whites in many cases–but McGinty said Rainey was able to overcome.
“He was respected by colleagues here in Georgetown both white and black,” she said.
Very little is known about Rainey’s childhood, but according to documents compiled by the Georgetown County Museum, Rainey’s father trained him as a barber–the very trade that had earned the family’s freedom decades before.
“I’d definitely say he laid the groundwork,” said McGinty.
When he returned to Georgetown in 1867, Rainey quickly got started on a political career, serving on the Executive Committee and as a delegate for the state Republican Party before being elected to the South Carolina Senate in 1870.
“He helped pass a civil rights bill, abolishing segregation in public,” said McGinty.
When a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives came open the next year, it was Rainey who was elected and became the first black man to hold a seat in the United States Congress in 1871.
“I think it was important for somebody of his stature at that time in history to be able to represent African-Americans,” McGinty opined. :That’s very important.”
While in Congress, Rainey fought for legislation protecting blacks from the newly-formed Ku Klux Klan as well as for the rights of Native Americans.
Rainey left the House in 1879.
Jan McGinty said Congressman Rainey’s life was one that served to bridge deep divides left by war.
“His funeral, a humongous funeral,” she said. “He had the respect of the white race as well as the black race.”
And make Georgetown County the place it is today.
“We’re very honored and pleased to represent him and talk about him.”
The Rainey-Camlin House, still on Prince Street, is privately owned. It is the only home in Georgetown to appear on the National Historic Register since 1984.