AMNA NAWAZ: Congressman James Clyburn has spent more than three decades in Congress.

And in his new book, he turns his attention to the trailblazing Black men who were the first to walk those halls.

Geoff Bennett recently sat down with the congressmen to learn more.

GEOFF BENNETT: They were the first eight Black members of Congress elected during Reconstruction, when American democracy was being rebuilt after the Civil War.

Their presence was revolutionary, their power was short-lived, and their stories were nearly erased.

In his new book, "The First Eight," Clyburn restores their legacy and draws a straight line from their struggle to today's fight over voting rights, representation, and democracy itself.

Congressman James Clyburn joins us.

Thanks for being here.

REP.

JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): Thank you very much for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: You say that, when people would visit your office and see portraits of the first eight on your conference room wall, people were often surprised because they assumed that you were the first Black South Carolinian elected to Congress.

Was that the catalyst for writing this book?

REP.

JAMES CLYBURN: It was.

And I had just finished my -- or just released my memoir.

And so one particular episode led me to open a conversation with my staff.

And I said to them, my next book is going to be about those eight people.

And I started writing it just to inform about their existence and what happened during their service.

And then the election of 2020 came.

And the aftermath of that election led me to start over and rewrite the book, to me, a little more instructive, rather than just informative.

GEOFF BENNETT: Reconstruction, to me, is among the most fascinating chapters of American history.

For folks who are less familiar with that time period, what about that moment allowed these men to be elected and serve?

REP.

JAMES CLYBURN: Well, when Reconstruction came after the Emancipation Proclamation of 18 -- or became effective, the second one became effective in 1863.

Well, we had to redo the government.

In South Carolina, of course, they had to come up with a new Constitution, which was done in 1868.

And because South Carolina had been at the center of the slave trade as it relates to the United States of America, South Carolina became the only state ever to be majority Black.

And as a result, when the new government came, two-thirds of the South Carolina House of Representatives was Black.

And at one point in its history, we had five congresspeople.

Four of them were black.

And so these people shaped the state.

And no matter what people may say about it, this state had the leading economy, the second most productive economy in the country.

And they did everything they possibly could to restore, I used the word throughout the book to redeem the South.

They themselves, I call them redeemers, because they call themselves.

They wanted to redeem the South, the pre-Civil War days.

GEOFF BENNETT: And the book argues that we are in a third reconstruction.

So when you look at current battles over voting access, over representation, over what can be taught in schools, what patterns do you see emerging?

What forces that undermined Reconstruction back then do you see now?

REP.

JAMES CLYBURN: Exactly the same things.

I say that one of the things I want people to get from this book is the power of one vote.

The three most significant things that happened to the Blacks during this period were -- all three were decided by one single vote.

The impeachment of Andrew Johnson, he failed to be convicted in the Senate by one vote.

The committee that recommended to the House of Representatives that they give the 20 disputed votes to Rutherford B. Hayes, who then was able to get elected president by one vote, 185 to 184 in the Electoral College, that committee, it was a 15-member committee, and they voted eight to seven, one vote, to give those votes to Rutherford B. Hayes So Reconstruction came to an end by one vote.

And then Jim Crow came about as a result of that 185 to 184.

Jim Crow began by one vote.

And so I hope people will get from this the power of a single vote.

And if you see what is now taking place in this country, a Supreme Court that I think has run amuck, undoing the Civil Rights Act of '64, undoing the Voting Rights Act of '65 -- of course, the Supreme Court is doing more with this Voting Rights Act.

It's the Congress and the presidency that seem to be undoing the Civil Rights Act of '64.

GEOFF BENNETT: We're in this moment right now where President Trump is faced with sagging approval numbers.

There's all of this fallout surrounding the Epstein files.

There's public fatigue over the high cost of living.

Do Democrats, in your view, have real leverage in this moment?

And, if so, how do you maintain it?

REP.

JAMES CLYBURN: Well, you got to stay vigilant.

If you look at historically, Democrats seem to think that once you win an election, you sit back and wait on the results to come.

That's not the way you do it.

Once you win an election, you build upon that win.

You keep the wind, that W-I-N-D, into the sails.

And that is what it will take to sustain.

Yes, I saw numbers just this morning that, on the generic polling, Democrats are up by 14 points.

I have never seen it that high before.

GEOFF BENNETT: That was a PBS/NPR/Marist poll.

REP.

JAMES CLYBURN: Yes, congratulations for... (LAUGHTER) REP.

JAMES CLYBURN: Of being what I feel to be accurate.

But the fact of the matter is, how do you maintain that?

If it can go up, it can go down.

In fact, there's the old saying, what goes up must come down.

So it's going to come down.

So the question is whether or not we are going to prepare ourselves to keep the wind in our sails.

We will just have to wait and see.

GEOFF BENNETT: Congressman Jim Clyburn.

The book is "The First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressmen Who Shaped a Nation."

Thanks for coming in.

Always good to see you.

REP.

JAMES CLYBURN: Well, thank you very much for having me.