Is this true?
Newsweek contacted Historian of the House of Representatives Matthew Wasniewski to ask about the claim.
He confirmed that the first 23 Black members of Congress had been Republicans.
“The figure of 23 is in fact correct,” he said. “It includes 22 Black Members of Congress during Reconstruction and the late 19th century (20 in the House and 2 in the Senate)—all from reconstructed southern states, and all Republican.
“After the last of those 22 individuals left the House in 1901 (George Henry White of NC), there was a three-decade gap where no African American served in either chamber because of the rise of Jim Crow and the denial of voting rights.
“In 1928, Oscar De Priest of Illinois, who represented a Chicago-centered district, became the first Black American elected from a northern state. He was a Republican and his rise in Illinois politics reflected the effects of the Great Migration.
“De Priest was the 23rd African American to serve in Congress.”