The St. Louis Post-Dispatch offers this report, which begins: “When Rep. John Conyers Jr. came to Congress in 1965, with the civil rights movement in full bloom, the young attorney from Detroit was hoping for a coveted seat on the House Judiciary Committee. No African-American had ever served on the panel. Indeed, Conyers was one of only six black congressmen serving in the House at the time. And to get such a plum post, Conyers first had to persuade then-House Speaker John McCormack, a cigar-chomping Irishman from south Boston. Conyers did. Now, 42 years later, he has become the first African-American to chair the committee. This time, however, Conyers has plenty of company. Four other African-American lawmakers were swept into House chairmanships when Democrats won control of Congress in last November’s elections. And more than a dozen black lawmakers, including Rep. William Lacy Clay Jr., D-St. Louis, serve at the helm of subcommittees”