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Jim Clyburn: “Thomas Edison couldn't get that light bulb to work until he…”

Featuring: Jim Clyburn, Democratic | U.S. House, South Carolina, District 6

Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn

Published February 19, 2026 | Video Starts at 51:00

… the greatest American inventor of all time in large measure because he invented the light bulb. However, what I did not get in my history books was the fact that Thomas Edison couldn't get that light bulb to work until he got Lewis Latimer's filament put in that light bulb. Lewis Latimer came up with the filament. The son of former slaves who discovered the filament. (51:00–51:09)

CLAIM

Asserts that Thomas Edison needed Lewis Latimer's filament for the light bulb to work.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Jim Clyburn

“28% of the African American vote in 1960 went to Richard Nixon.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 01:55-02:00
“Truman was the first president to address the national convention of the NAACP.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 14:32-14:39
“If one residence in a community had broadband, the entire census tract would be considered as covered.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 34:17-34:27
“Jim Crow became the law of the land by an Electoral college vote of 185 to 185.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 37:58-38:09
“A 15 member commission voted 8 to 7 to give those 20 votes to Hayes.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 38:53-38:56
“There's only two states in the Union that made study black history mandatory in our schools and South Carolina is one of them.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 53:05-53:19
“Majority of people in this country are saying the country is on the wrong track.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 00:07-00:10
“Majority of people in this country are saying the country is on the wrong track.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 00:07-00:10
“We will put this country back on track. The right track.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 00:11-57:07
“The big transition did not take place until 1964, when the Civil Rights act of 64 and then the Voting Rights act of 65, those things drove…”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 02:00-02:28
“Rutherford B. Hayes was also a Republican, and it was he who initiated the biggest double cross in African American history, when he brought…”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 02:42-02:56
“Absolutely. That changed that election.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 09:34-13:50
“In October of 1960, when we had that meeting, it was after that meeting on Morehouse, God's campus, that King went to jail the following…”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 13:00-13:14
“That jail visit prompt a phone call.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 13:29-13:33
“I tell people all the time going into that election, if you look at the polling, Richard Nixon was getting the majority of the black vote.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 13:55-14:03
“28% of that vote still went to Richard Nixon.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 14:05-14:08
“Harry Truman...integrated the armed services, when Franklin Roosevelt had refused to do so.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 14:20-14:31
“Truman...introduced the first resolution to create civil rights committees.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 14:21-14:53
“It all culminated with Lyndon Johnson's election of 1964.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 14:56-15:04
“Thurmond took his second exit from the Democratic Party.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 15:06-15:12
“Defund the Police is going to do to our party what Burn Baby Byrne did to our movement.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 19:00-19:09
“Defund the police was not in the best interest of our partner.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 19:22-19:28
“I ran for office in 1970, ran for the state legislature and was declared the winner at around 10 o' clock in the evening.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 23:59-24:10
“Rather than being a 500 vote winner, I was a 500 vote loser.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 24:24-24:29
“He named me to run the state agency and that state agency, the state Human Affairs Commission.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 27:29-27:38
“I was there for almost 18 years.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 27:40-27:43
“I retired from state government, from that job to run for Congress.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 27:43-27:49
“There was one [Black person] from Georgia, no blacks elected from North Carolina [in 1992].”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 28:03-28:05
“When the Counting was over this time. I had 56% of the vote by my lonesome.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 28:52-29:00
“I'm on the Appropriations Committee, they say, and I am the ranking member on transportation and hud.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 30:36-30:43
“When I passed the House, it was 95 billion.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 31:10-31:14
“The Senate cut it to 65 billion.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 31:13-31:17
“The name of that bill is making broadband accessible and affordable.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 31:17-31:23
“A county is considered to be in persistent poverty when 20% or more of the population are stuck between the poverty level for 30 years.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 32:07-32:20
“2/3 of the communists that fall into this category are represented by Republicans, and they ain't black.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 32:56-33:06
“When the FCC used to classify broadband coverage, they did it by census tracts.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 34:07-34:17
“The 2020 election was treated like the 1876 election.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 36:22-36:32
“One vote brought an end to Reconstruction.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 37:54-37:59
“Rutherford Hayes had 165 [votes] and there were 20 disputed votes sitting in three states, Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 38:33-38:42
“Hayes told them, give me these votes, I'll bring an end to reconstruction.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 38:59-39:06
“One month after he was sworn in, he removed all the troops from the south and allowed Jim Crow to become the law of the land.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 39:13-39:24
“I introduced a resolution to put a portrait of Rainey in the Capitol building.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 40:10-40:17
“On the 150th year, we put up another resolution to have a room in the Capitol named in his honor.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 40:32-40:41
“We are in throes of turning the clock back. And you mentioned voter registration and voter id and we've seen the houses pass a law on what…”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 42:24-42:40
“Your picture on a hunting license will be accepted as id, but your picture on the student activity card will not be accepted.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 42:58-43:07
“I have never voted when I did not ID myself, because the moment I present my registration card, as I always do when I vote, that is my id.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 43:15-43:27
“Don't say to this senior citizen who's having a job making ends meet that we're going to charge you another $150 to get an ID to vote.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 44:46-45:01
“In South Carolina, over 60% of the population was African American.”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 46:27-46:33
“There were seven African American Seven congresspeople in South Carolina, only one district. They call it the shoestring district because it…”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 46:56-47:18
“It was to settle a lawsuit. And I happened to be on the committee that was appointed by Dick Riley to come up with some ways that he could…”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 53:22-53:42
“Trump asked in his first campaign, and he was talking to black folks when he did. What do you have to lose now?”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 54:29-54:39
“He got a big portion of the African American vote, mostly African American men, simply because of that little word of dignity, maybe those…”
Civil Rights, Voter ID and How Democrats Win Back Voters With Congressman Jim Clyburn | Uploaded February 19, 2026 | 55:02-55:18