From the first United States Congress in 1789 through the 116th Congress in 2020, 162 African Americans have served in Congress. Meanwhile, the total number of all individuals who have served in Congress over history is 12,348. Of African Americans, 152 have served in the House of Representatives , 9 have served in the Senate , and 1 has served in both chambers. Voting members have totaled 156, with 6 serving as delegates . Party membership has been, 131 Democrats , and 31 Republicans . While 13 members founded the Congressional Black Caucus in 1971 during the 92nd Congress , in the 116th Congress (2019-2020), 56 have served, with 54 Democrats and 2 Republicans (total seats are 535, plus 6 delegates).

African Americans are a demographic minority in the United States . African-Americans' initial achievements in various fields historically establish a foothold, providing a precedent for more widespread cultural change. The shorthand phrase for this is "breaking the color barrier."

The Congressional Black Caucus ( CBC ) is a caucus made up of most African-American members of the United States Congress . Representative Karen Bass from California chaired the caucus from 2019 to 2021, when Representative Joyce Beatty from Ohio became its chair. As of 2020, all members of the caucus are part of the Democratic Party .

The United States has had five African-American elected office holders prior to 1867. After Congress passed the First Military Reconstruction Act of 1867 and ratified the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1870, African Americans began to be elected or appointed to national, state, county and local offices throughout the United States.

The United States Senate has had eleven African-American elected or appointed office holders. The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral United States Congress , which is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States . The U.S. Census Bureau defines African Americans as citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa. The term is generally used for Americans with at least partial ancestry in any of the original peoples of sub-Saharan Africa . During the founding of the federal government , African Americans were consigned to a status of second-class citizenship or enslaved . No African American served in federal elective office before the ratification in 1870 of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution , although some (including Alexander Twilight , as state senator in Vermont ) served in state elective offices concurrently with slavery. The Fifteenth Amendment prohibits the federal and state governments from denying any citizen the right to vote because of that citizen's race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Of the ten senators, six were popularly elected (including one that previously had been appointed by his state's governor), two were elected by the state legislature prior to the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1913 (which provides for the direct election of U.S. senators by the people of each state), and two were appointed by a state Governor . The 113th United States Congress (2013–15) marked the first time that two African Americans served concurrently in the Senate.

The United States House of Representatives has had 153 elected African-American members, of whom 147 have been representatives from U.S. states and 6 have been delegates from U.S. territories and the District of Columbia . The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral United States Congress , which is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States .