December 9, 1881 – Appointment of African-American William H. Smith as Librarian of the House of Representatives

On this day in history, William Henry Smith, an African-American, was appointed Librarian of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Smith, a native of D.C. born in 1833, served as a library messenger as early as 1864, according to records of the House. He had help in securing the job by the ardent abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts. He was elevated to Librarian for the 47th Congress.

As the House history site reports:

The appointment proved controversial for . . . the Republican majority because Smith became one of the highest-ranking African Americans in the federal government at a time when the hard-won rights of many freedmen in the South were being rolled back. Despite some opposition from southern Representatives, the New York Times reported, ‘the generally expressed opinion that Smith was the ablest man possible to place in charge of the library, and his popularity as a capable and attentive official, carried the day and he kept the place.’ Members of both parties regarded him as a reference ‘authority’ with a ‘memory of speeches, and points made by different public men in debate, [that] was remarkable.’”

Nevertheless, in the next Congress, when Democrats regained control, Smith was demoted to Assistant Librarian serving under a white man, William Butler, the brother of Senator Matthew C. Butler of South Carolina, a former Confederate general. When Republicans regained the majority in 1888, Smith was once again restored to the position of Librarian. He retired from the House at the conclusion of the 51st Congress in 1891.

Smith was active in abolitionist causes, joining with Frederick Douglass to oppose the establishment of segregated schools. In 1892, Smith was named custodian of the library and art gallery of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He died in 1903.