Oscar Stanton De Priest (March 9, 1871 - May 12, 1951) was an American lawmaker and civil rights advocate who served as a U.S. Representative from Illinois from 1929 to 1935. He was the first African American to serve in Congress in the 20th century.
De Priest was born in Florence, Alabama to former slaves. His mother worked part-time as a laundress, and his father, Alexander, was a teamster associated with the "Exodus" movement, which arose after the Civil War to help blacks escape continued oppression in the South by moving to other states that offered greater freedom. In 1878, the DePriests left for Salina, Kansas, after the elder DePriest had to save a friend who was a former Congressman from a murderous mob and another black man was killed on their doorstep.
In Kansas, Oscar DePriest studied business and bookkeeping before moving to Dayton, Ohio. After working as a painter and decorator, De Priest moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1889, where he became a successful businessman as a contractor and real estate broker. He went on to build a fortune in the stock market and in real estate by helping black families move into formerly all-white neighborhoods. From 1904 to 1908, he was a member of the board of commissioners of Cook County, Illinois, and he then served on the Chicago City Council from 1915 to 1917 as alderman of the 2nd Ward.
He stepped down as alderman in 1917 after being indicted for alleged involvement with Chicago's South Side black mob, but was acquitted after hiring Clarence Darrow to defend him.
In 1919, DePriest ran unsuccessfully for alderman as a member of the People's Movement Club, a political organization he founded. In a few years, DePriest's became the most powerful of Chicago's many black political organizations, and he became the top black politician under Chicago Republican mayor William Hale Thompson.
In 1928, when Republican congressman Martin B. Madden died, DePriest replaced him on the ballot and became the first African American elected to Congress in the 20th century, representing the 1st Congressional District of Illinois (the South Side of Chicago) as a Republican. During his three consecutive terms (1929-1935) as the only black representative in Congress, De Priest introduced several anti-discrimination bills. His 1933 amendment barring discrimination in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was passed by the Senate and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. A second anti-lynching bill failed, even though it would not have made lynching a federal crime. A third proposal, a bill to permit a transfer of jurisdiction if a defendant believed he or she could not get a fair trial because of race or religion, was passed by a later Congress.
Civil rights activists criticized De Priest for opposing federal aid to the needy, but they applauded him for speaking in the South despite death threats. They also praised De Priest for telling an Alabama senator he was not big enough to prevent him from dining in the Senate restaurant, and for defending the right of Howard University students to eat in the House restaurant. De Priest took the House restaurant issue to a special bipartisan House committee. In a three month-long heated debate, the Republican minority argued that the restaurant's discriminatory practice violated 14th Amendment rights to equal access. The Democratic majority skirted the issue by claiming that the restaurant was not open to the public, and the House restaurant remained segregated.
In 1929, DePriest made national news when first lady Lou Hoover, at DePriest's urging, invited his wife, Jessie Williams DePriest, to a tea for congressional wives at the White House. He also appointed Benjamin O. Davis Jr. to the U. S. Military Academy at a time when the army had only one African-American line officer (Davis's father).
By the early 1930s, DePriest's popularity waned as the economy plummeted because he continued to oppose taxes on the rich and fought Depression era federal relief programs. De Priest was defeated in 1934 by Democrat Arthur W. Mitchell, who was also an African American. He was again elected to the Chicago City Council in 1943 as alderman of the 3rd Ward, and served until 1947. He died in Chicago at age 80 and is buried in Graceland Cemetery.
Oscar and Jessie DePriest had two sons, Laurence, and Oscar Jr.
His house in Chicago, on 45th and King Drive is a National Historic Landmark.