Oscar De Priest
| Oscar Stanton De Priest | |
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| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 1st district |
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In office March 4, 1929 – January 3, 1935 |
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| Preceded by | Martin B. Madden |
| Succeeded by | Arthur W. Mitchell |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
March 9, 1871 Florence, Alabama |
| Died | May 12, 1951 (aged 80) Chicago, Illinois |
| Resting place | Graceland Cemetery |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Jessie De Priest |
| Children | Laurence W. De Priest Oscar Stanton De Priest, Jr. |
Oscar Stanton De Priest (March 9, 1871 – May 12, 1951) was an American Republican politician and civil rights advocate from Chicago who served as a U.S. Representative from Illinois' 1st congressional district from 1929 to 1935. De Priest was the first African American to be elected to Congress from outside the southern states and the first in the 20th century. During his three terms, he was the only African American serving in Congress.
Born in Alabama to freedmen parents, De Priest was raised in Dayton, Ohio. He studied business and made a fortune in Chicago as a contractor, and in real estate and the stock market before the Crash. In Congress, he spoke out against racial discrimination, including at speaking events in the South; tried to integrate the House public restaurant; gained passage of an amendment to desegregate the Civilian Conservation Corps, one of the work programs under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal; and introduced anti-lynching legislation to the House (it was not passed because of the Solid South Democratic opposition).
De Priest was born in 1871 in Florence, Alabama, to freedmen, former slaves of mixed race. He had a brother named Robert. His mother, Martha Karsner, worked part-time as a laundress, and his father Neander was a teamster, associated with the "Exodus" movement. After the Civil War, thousands of blacks left continued oppression by whites in the South by moving to other states that offered promises of freedom and greater economic opportunities, such as Kansas. Others moved later in the century.
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