People ask where the name came from. Crew of 42 is a nod to the Congressional Black Caucus itself. When this site launched in 2009, the caucus had just crossed its historic threshold — and forty-two felt like the right number to carry.

Why 42

Two reasons, stacked.

First, the number is symbolic. Forty-two was the jersey number worn by Jackie Robinson, the first Black player in modern Major League Baseball. MLB retired the number across every team in 1997 — an honor reserved only for Robinson. The crew that covers the Congressional Black Caucus is working in that same tradition: making sure the work of Black public figures is on the record, in detail, without being reduced to three narratives (angry, gang-ing up, in disarray — see About).

Second, the number is accurate to the moment the site launched. At the start of the 111th Congress in January 2009, the Congressional Black Caucus had roughly that size — 42 voting members when Crew of 42 went online. The caucus has since grown, but the original count stayed in the name.

What the Site Covers

  • Every roll call where CBC members split, flipped, or voted as a bloc
  • Committee work — hearings, mark-ups, ranking-member statements
  • CBC internal fights — chair elections, endorsement decisions, DNC politics
  • HBCU policy — Title III, Pell Grant year-round restoration, executive orders
  • Criminal justice reform — Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act, First Step Act, police consent decrees
  • Obituaries and legacy — the long arc from John Conyers to the incoming generation

What We Don’t Do

Crew of 42 is not a press-release relay. We do not publish unedited caucus statements, and we are skeptical of narratives that come from any single source — leadership, member offices, advocacy groups or the White House. We link back to primary documents when we can and correct openly when we are wrong.

The Count Today

The 115th Congress CBC seated 49 voting members plus two non-voting delegates. The full roster lives on the By Seniority page and the By Age page. The name on the door still says 42.