The caucus has grown steadily as more black members have been elected. At its formal founding in 1971, the caucus had thirteen members. In 1979
Melvin H. Evans, a non-voting delegate from the Virgin Islands, became the first Republican member in the group's history.
Gary Franks was the first Republican voting congressman to join in 1991, though he was at times excluded from CBC strategy sessions, skipped meetings, and threatened to quit the caucus.
J. C. Watts did not join the CBC when he entered Congress in 1995, and after Franks left Congress in 1997, no Republicans joined the CBC for fourteen years until
Allen West joined the caucus in 2011, though fellow freshman congressman
Tim Scott declined to join. After West was defeated for re-election, the CBC became a Democrat-only caucus once again in 2013. In
2014, two black Republicans were elected to the House. Upon taking office,
Will Hurd from Texas declined to join the caucus, while
Mia Love from Utah, the first black Republican congresswoman, joined. In 2021, newly elected black Republican
Byron Donalds was blocked from joining the CBC.
Non-black membership All past and present members of the caucus have been Black. In 2006, while running for Congress in a
Tennessee district which is 60% black,
Steve Cohen, who is white, pledged to apply for membership in order to represent his constituents. However, after his election, his application was refused. Although the bylaws of the caucus do not make race a prerequisite for membership, former and current members of the caucus agreed that the group should remain "exclusively black". In response to the decision, Cohen referred to his campaign promise as "a social
faux pas" because "It's their caucus and they do things their way. You don't force your way in. You need to be invited." Later the same week, Representative
Tom Tancredo, a Republican from Colorado, objected to the continued existence of the CBC as well as the
Democratic Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the
Republican Congressional Hispanic Conference arguing that "It is utterly hypocritical for Congress to extol the virtues of a color-blind society while officially sanctioning caucuses that are based solely on race. If we are serious about achieving the goal of a colorblind society, Congress should lead by example and end these divisive, race-based caucuses."
Black Latino membership Prior to 2017, no one had attempted to be in both the CBC and the
Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC). In the
2016 House elections, Afro-Dominican State Senator
Adriano Espaillat was elected to an open seat after twice trying to unseat CBC founder
Charlie Rangel (who also has Puerto Rican ancestry) in the Democratic primary. Espaillat signaled that he wanted to join the CBC as well as the CHC, but it was reported that he was rebuffed, and it was insinuated that the cause was bad blood over the attempted primary challenges of Rangel. In the
2018 elections, Afro-Latino Democrat
Antonio Delgado was elected and joined the CBC, making no public effort to join the CHC as well. In the
2020 elections, Afro-Puerto Rican Democratic candidate
Ritchie Torres published an
op-ed claiming that he was prevented from joining both the CBC and CHC as he wished to do, a claim which was denied by then-CBC chair
Karen Bass. After being elected to Congress, Torres successfully joined both the CBC and CHC. ==Chairs==