Power and Purpose: Congressman Jim Clyburn Talks Legacy and Leadership

What this episode is about

Congressman Jim Clyburn discusses his legacy in leadership and the inspiration behind his book, "The First Eight," which highlights the contributions of the eight African-Americans who preceded him in Congress from South Carolina. He reflects on the importance of his journey and how it has shaped his identity and impact in American politics.

Key takeaways

• Jim Clyburn reminds us that sometimes, the past prepares you for a stormy present.
• Eight shadows loom large: Clyburn’s history lesson is a timely reminder of whose shoulders we stand on.
• Between the lines of his memoir and 'The First Eight,' Clyburn rewrites history—no pressure, right?
• A Bible verse and a colored event: Clyburn’s upbringing proves storytelling is a sacred craft.
• In a world drowning in noise, Clyburn’s oratory is the life raft we didn’t know we needed.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Mick Hunt (Host) · 8 min speaking
• Jim Clyburn (Guest) · 12 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: Robert Smalls, The First Eight
2. 5:00 – 10:00: Jim Clyburn, The First Eight
3. 10:00 – 15:00: Robert Smalls, The First Eight
4. 15:00 – 20:00: Robert Smalls, The First Eight, Thomas E. Miller

Notable quotes from "Power and Purpose: Congressman Jim Clyburn Talks Legacy and Leadership"

• Remissed if we didn't talk about out of the gate this amazing book that you were writing, the first eight. And we talk about the legacy I want to leave behind. You put your…

  about The First Eight · at 1:25

• Bishop and had pastored Emanuel AM church down in Charleston. Then there's Smalls, Robert Smalls from Beootford.

  about Robert Smalls · at 3:04

• Means to me. I almost wonder what took so long. But then I go the only person that could do it is Jim Clyburn. So I don't ask what took so long. Knowing you like I know you and…

  about Jim Clyburn · at 4:58

• There are things in this book about Robert Smalls, but there are things in this book about people that Thomas E.

  about Thomas E. Miller · at 16:37

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Robert Smalls — Person · 6 mentions · first at 3:10
• Thomas E. Miller — Person · 2 mentions · first at 16:41
• Jim Clyburn — Person · 1 mention · first at 5:07

Books & papers

• The First Eight — Book · 5 mentions · first at 1:32

Full transcript with timestamps

0:03 This is Mick Unplugged. Let us uncover the because that thing that drives you. That thing that fuels you. I'm ready if you are. Let's go. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Mick Unplugged. And today I literally get to sit down with one of my heroes. You know, he's advised presidents. He's reshaped the course of American history with a single endorsement. We're talking about from the halls of Congress to the heart of the movement. His voice has never wavered. It's been a compass for change, for justice, and for unity. He is the visionary. He is the resolute. He is the legendary. He is my congressman. Mr. Jim Clyurn, I am so honored to to spend some time with someone being from South Carolina, being a young black man from South Carolina. Um, you you've shaped who I was, who I've become, and the legacy that I'm trying to create, and that all stemmed from you showing me it was

1:14 possible. So, I wanted to take just a moment and just say thank you. And I mean that from my soul. Thank you.

1:21 I appreciate that. Thank you. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And I would be remissed if we didn't talk about out of the gate this amazing book that you were writing, the first eight. And and we talk about the legacy I want to leave behind. You put your legacy in writing for us. I'd love for you to just talk about the first eight, where the thought came from to put this out and and who you hope to touch with this amazing book that you have. Thank you. When I uh published my memoir 10 years ago, 2015, one day, shortly thereafter, a group came to my uh office uh when I was a majority whip, and I had on the wall of my conference room these eight pictures, and they pictures of the eight uh African-Americans who serve in Congress from South Carolina before me. One of the people in the group asked me who they were. And when I told them, she said to me, "I thought you were the first African-American to serve in

2:24 Congress from South Carolina." And I kind of playfully said to her, "No, before I was first, there were eight." And later that day, uh, I said to my staff, you know, maybe one day after I get over this book we just published, I might write a book about these eight people cuz I think so many of them are so important to our history that Joseph Rainey was the first African-American to be elected to the House of Representatives and sworn in on December 1270. Richard Kaine who was number four in that group. Richard Kaine became an AM bishop and had pastored Emanuel AM church down in Charleston. Then there's uh Smalls, Robert Smalls from Beootford.

3:13 Robert Smalls the only to me genuine hero of the Civil War and it served in the state house of representatives here in Colombia and in the Congress. I said, "I'm going to write about these people." And so, uh, I started taking notes and, um, uh, not really getting too serious about it. Then January 6, 2021 hit. And while we were sitting in this so-called undisclosed location, having been rushed off the House floor for safety, I said to people around me, "I know what's happening here. They are trying to get this count stopped so they can get this election thrown into the house of represent representatives just like was done in 1876.

4:06 And when that happened, that is what started the end to reconstruction. That's what started the beginning of Jim Crow. I said that is what is happening here. So then I got serious about doing this book. And then when my uh communications director retired in the middle of doing the book, she said to me, "I'm going to retire, but I want you to finish this book. You write. I'll do the copy editing. I'll do the footnoting. You just write and send me uh what you've written." And that's what led to the book. And that's what led to this uh production that's going to be um released on November 11th.

4:51 And I can't wait again being from South Carolina and knowing what that history means to me. I I almost wonder what took so long. But then I go the only person that could do it is Jim Clyburn. So I don't ask what took so long. Knowing you like I know you and I've followed you forever and I've seen you speak and I've got to shake your hand. I know I'm not going to ask you to remember, but I've got to shake your hand. I know how you storytell, so I can't wait to see how you put this together in story form because you are one of the greatest ortors of my generation in the state of South Carolina. I my kids don't even know what the word orator means, right? But you are you are one of the most eloquent, not from how you talk, but the impact that your words make.

5:48 When did you realize you had that gift? Well, when I was growing up, my dad was a minister, and we often talked about me following him into the ministry. And of course, I I didn't know what my dad was doing, but we had among the rules we had to live by. One was every morning before breakfast, we had to recite a Bible verse. And then every evening before retiring to bed, uh we had to share with him uh and my mother a colored event. uh we didn't have TV uh so you had to read the afternoon newspapers uh when it was delivered to our home uh and that was a requirement finish your homework then let's uh talk about this carb and so I I grew up with all of that and I um I used to watch my dad uh he was uh a pretty good ator himself

6:46 and I was blessed uh with um the vocal cords that he had uh in I guess when I got to South Carolina State because when I was in high school it was more the band and the choir for a while there were people who thought that I should sing. But when I got to South Carolina State, I got involved in in the citizens and it so happened that before every march or even every meeting that we had, I was always called on to do the prayer to open the meeting. It's when I first detected that people were just as attracted to my inonations as they were to my recitations. And so um I would always be creative with these prayers I was given. For instance, you know, I was sensitive uh to people's different religious backgrounds. And so I would always open my prayer with addressing the omnipotent, omnisient, and omnipresent being. That's the way I always did it in order to not insult folks. There were just one or two people

8:02 on stage campus who called themselves Muslims. Then every now and then, especially during the movement, uh there were a lot of Jewish uh people involved uh with our efforts and I didn't want to insult anybody. So that's the way I would open every prayer. But then uh people started talking to me about about my voice and uh that's when I first realized that my dad uh said a lot of things and offered a lot of compliments but he never said anything to me uh about my voice being in it and just think and and then it it still happens.

8:39 I sometimes get on the airplanes and the moment people they recognize my voice before they recognize me. And so I um found that out when I was a student at South Carolina State and I can tell the difference now when I develop allergies my voice changed people don't recognize me. Well, again, you're someone who I studied and someone who when I was in in junior high in high school and we had to have speech class or we'd go and do debates, again, things that the young kids don't do now,

9:12 I would pattern myself after you and I would study the pace of which you spoke and how you put inflections on certain words and and how you would use your body and your gestures to get certain points across and and I always felt like it's a lost skill. And so I got to a point now where like my kids will study some of your speeches and some of your talks because I want them to understand the power number one that you have had always,

9:41 but how they can train themselves and and really learn from from men like you. And so again, I'm just appreciative on so many levels.

9:50 Yes, sir. And I want to come back to the first eight again because when I when I first heard about it, I immediately said, "Wow, the power of mentorship." And I'm sure that you didn't know all eight of those obviously personally, but I'm sure that all eight provided mentorship to you just like you have to so many that maybe they don't know you personally, but we follow who you are. talk to us about what mentorship means to you and how these eight have kind of formed that group of mentors even though again you you don't personally or didn't physically know all of them

10:28 you know uh people ask me who the heroes in my life uh my dad I always mention first

10:35 cuz he was um interesting person who grew up in Kusho County South Carolina at a time when the state of South Carolina did not provide high school for African-Americans And so he only went through the seventh grade. And then when he was not allowed to go to school anymore, he selftaught and he became uh sufficient enough uh to pass a college entrance exam and got into college, but then was never allowed to graduate college because the state had a law at that time that you could not get a college degree if you did not have a high school diploma. And so when he could not produce his high school diploma, uh they would not allow him to go into his senior year of college. And so uh that is the kind of stuff that um and the experiences I would talk to him often about his experiences. Now I did not know that he had not graduated college until about 6 months before he passed away. And I found that out from a

11:39 person who was in the uh in college with him who asked me about him, wanted to know whether or not I knew him because of my last name. And so when he told me that my dad didn't show up that senior year, I then left Hampton County where this was taking place and went straight to Sumpter to ask my dad for an explanation. And he did it. He gave me the explanation and that's how I know all of this. and 6 months later he passed away. So he was about to leave this earth with my not ever knowing that part of his history. But what I learned from him is that um there's a certain amount of education.

12:20 Yeah. That you got to get outside of the books. And so I try hard now to really soak up stuff that I hear from people, soak up stuff that I may see on the evening news or read in a newspaper and try to make it relevant.

12:39 Yeah. For instance, you know, I'm not I never would have recognized uh what was happening on January 6 had I not soak up some of the stuff my dad told me because he first he was the first one to tell me about Robert Smalls.

12:53 Yeah. They weren't teaching that in the schools when I was growing up, right? I started learning all that stuff for my own. And as one would find in the first eight, but when I talk about these people, I think that I even say introduction to the book, among the eight, Robert Smalls was head and shoulders above all the rest of them. Who could be born into slavery as he was? who would have been able to escape from slavery the way he did and not just alone. He brought his sort of family with him and his friends. And when he stole that ship, that planter, uh, he made a stop on his way out of out of the Charleston Harbor to pick up his wife and other friends to and delivered that ship to the Union soldiers. Then within 6 months of having escaped from slavery, he's sitting down with the president of the United States in August of 1862. He escaped from slavery back in May. In August, he was in Washington DC sitting down with

14:03 Abraham Lincoln and he came back to South Carolina with authorization to recruit 5,000 African-Americans to fight in the Union Army. And so he is a genuine hero. Then he ends up with significant wealth. ends up spending 10 years in the state legislature and 10 years in the uh in the United States Congress doing without ever achieving a formal education.

14:34 Now, he did hire uh folks to uh to teach him because he fights for education. And so I say that Robert Smalls is the most consequential South Carolinian who ever lived. And um I had a gentleman one time we were down in King Street, South Carolina. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke uh the first time he spoke in South Carolina after the passes of the 1965 vot was in the little town of King Street down in Williamsburg County, which is in my district.

15:09 Yeah. And so I was down there uh to speak for the 50th anniversary of his visit to King Street. And while I was talking uh to the group, I reminisced a little bit about Robert Smalls having represented that same area in the United States Congress and and how proud I was to be to have inherited his constituency. Well, I said at the time that I thought that Robert Smalls was the most consequential South Carolinian who ever lived. So I came down from the podium. I'm walk a gentleman came up to me who I knew who was white big supporter of mine and he said to me, he said, "No, that was a terrific speech." And he said, "You know what? I think I agree with you that Robert Smalls was the most consequential black South Carolinian who ever lived." And I said to him, "That is not what I said. I said that Robert Smalls is the most consequential South Carolinian bar none." Yes, sir. He looked at me with a interesting smile,

16:13 walked away, and those are that's the last time I ever we ever had a conversation. But I'm I think I can demonstrate.

16:24 Some people may say it's John C. Calhoun. Some people may say it's strong Thurman,

16:28 but if you look the consequences, the consequences of his life Yeah. can mess you up to Robert Smalls. And so there are things in this book uh about Robert Smalls, but there are things in this book about people that Thomas E. Miller, Thomas Miller, of the eight, Miller was number seven. Robert Smalls was number six. Miller succeeded Smalls. Uh and one of the interesting things that people will find in this book that Miller was African-American by choice, not by birth. Miller was the first president of South Carolina State. The state was uh first brought online in 1896.

17:14 Thomas E. Miller was his first president. He had already been defeated for Congress by George Washington Murray. Well, he was not black, not African-American. He was the grandson according to him of Thomas, one of the sons of the Declaration of Independence. Yes, sir. Now, Haywood, he admits [clears throat] to having been born out of wedlock and being given up for adoption, and he was adopted by an African-American family down in what's now Richland, South Carolina, and they moved to Charleston where he uh began to work

17:55 and later went to Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and H.B.CU. And when he graduated from Lincoln, rather than going back to New York where he had come from before going to Lincoln, he uh decided to come back to South Carolina.

18:12 And he went to law school at the University of South Carolina. Wow. And that's another thing you learned in this book. University of South Carolina was the only southern institution that was integrated during and after the Civil War.

18:27 Wow. Wow. I could listen to you all day. Thank you. I could listen to you all day. Here's what I want to do.

18:36 Sure. Because I know how busy you are, but you mean so much to me. The first 20 people that are watching or listening to this that message me, the first eight, I'm going to purchase a copy of the book for them.

18:52 I appreciate it. I want to do that. I want to have you on again anytime you want to be on. You mean the world to me. This book is that important. We'll have links from your team to where they can go get the book. But the first 20 people that message me, the first eight, I'm giving you a copy of the book. I'm going to buy them for them.

19:14 Well, thank you so much for doing that. I hope that the people will find in this book, let's just say, substance and sustenance to weather the storm this country. I do believe uh that we're going to get through uh these challenging times because I saw what I have seen what these eight people did uh and did not do and what we can learn from it. I really believe people will understand it. This book was written with that in mind.

19:47 You got it. Congressman, again, I thank you so much for your time. Thank you for who you are. And I can't wait to see you soon in person. Thank you. You've been plugged into Mick Unplugged. Don't just listen, take action. Rate and subscribe, follow me on social, and get the full experience at mickhuntofficial.com. Keep building, keep leading, and most importantly, keep dominating.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Power and Purpose: Congressman Jim Clyburn Talks Legacy and Leadership"?

Mick Hunt (Host), Jim Clyburn (Guest).

What is "Power and Purpose: Congressman Jim Clyburn Talks Legacy and Leadership" about?

Congressman Jim Clyburn discusses his legacy in leadership and the inspiration behind his book, "The First Eight," which highlights the contributions of the eight African-Americans who preceded him in Congress from South Carolina. He reflects on the importance of his journey and how it has shaped his identity and impact in American politics.

What is mentioned in this Mick Unplugged Podcast episode?

4 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Robert Smalls, The First Eight, Thomas E. Miller, Jim Clyburn. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Power and Purpose: Congressman Jim Clyburn Talks Legacy and Leadership"?

The episode runs 20 min; the transcript is about 3,178 words in 34 timestamped sections.

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