UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE KENTUCKY AUTHOR FORUM PRESENTS

in collaboration with the Political Science Department:

U.S. CONGRESSMAN JIM CLYBURN

In conversation with Dr. Sherri Wallace,  Associate Dean and Professor, Department of Political Science, about Congressman Clyburn’s book, The First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressmen Who Shaped a Nation

University of Louisville College of Business, Room 336, 110 W Brandeis Ave, Louisville, KY 40208

November 24, 2025, at 11am

The entire campus community is welcome for discussion and Q & A with Congressman Clyburn, a free event.

James E. Clyburn is the Congressman representing South Carolina’s 6th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he previously served as Majority Whip. A more than 30-year Congressional veteran, he has been an influential and effective legislative leader and an unwavering voice for civil rights. In 2024, he was bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States. Clyburn’s book, The First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressmen Who Shaped a Nation, is an extraordinary work of living history. It explores the powerful, untold story of the pioneering Black politicians from South Carolina who were elected to Congress in the aftermath of the Civil War, and a revealing explanation of why it took nearly a century before the ninth, James Clyburn, was elected.

Praise for The First Eight:

“A gripping Reconstruction Era history that chronicles the First Eight Black South Carolina Congressmen’s turbulent rise to national prominence. Nearly a century after the last of them left Congress, Congressman Clyburn—from whom I first learned this history as a high-school student in 1964—began to carry their legacy forward as the Ninth.”―James I. Gadsden, Former United States Ambassador