Herbert “Bertie” Bowman dies
Herbert “Bertie” Bowman, who began working in Congress by sweeping the stairs to the U.S. Senate and eventually found a home on the Senate Committee for Foreign Relations, died Wednesday. He was 92 years old.
Bowman was the longest-serving African-American congressional staffer in history. He worked on Capitol Hill for over 60 years, according to a spokesperson for the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
Senator Burnet R. Maybank, a three-term Senator from South Carolina and a governor, hired Bowman to sweep the U.S. Capitol steps. In the late 1940s, Bowman was drafted into the U.S. Army.
He later worked in the coffee shop before becoming a janitor, cook, and shoe-shiner for U.S. senators. In the mid-1950s, he worked in the Capitol’s barbershop.
In 1966, he was hired to clerk on the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations (FRC).
A year later, Bill Clinton worked for Bowman when he was a messenger for the FRC. Bowman oversaw a college-age Clinton when he was a messenger for the Arkansas Democrat Senator William Fulbright. Clinton later became president.
U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond assisted Bowman in enrolling at Howard University, where he studied business for two years.
You would often see him standing next to each of the presidents who served while he was in Congress.