RC: A lot of people might have this idea of South Carolina as just being part of the deep South, but it has extra significance in terms of African-American history and culture. Tell us a little about that — the parts of the African-American experience that are reflected at home.

TS: The No. 1 tourist destination in the nation, four years running, I believe, is Charleston, South Carolina. And the epicenter of a lot of that activity is Market Street. Between 40 and 50 percent of all slaves that came into this country came to Market Street. It was a place where you marketed black people. To think about that place at that time and where we are today … it is hard not to understand and appreciate the pain, the suffering, the challenges, the disgust and now, the brilliance, the life, the vitality and the hopefulness that is hardwired into one location where people from around the world come to visit. Just to walk on the street where … you had human beings on auction. That is just devastating to think about, tragic. And at the same time, to fast-forward a couple of hundred years and to understand the power of change, to understand the power of hope, to understand the pain and suffering … that makes me possible. I always say, because it’s true, that I literally stand on the shoulders of giants who paid such a high price so that I could represent … the entire state. So it is not lost on me the pain and suffering and sacrifice, nor is it lost on me the growth, the tremendous transformation that is possible within human beings.

RC: You’re from a different political party from the most recent president, but what was going through your mind when you saw former President Barack Obama’s helicopter take off after eight years of the first black president’s term? TS: Probably, I think I went backwards eight years. Back to November of 2008. I was driving my grandfather to vote — I think he was around 86 years old or so. And he just could not believe that there was a chance that this country, his country, would elect a black man to be president. … I would like to say that [it was] after the results came in that my grandfather was teary-eyed — it wasn’t. It was actually on the way in to vote, where he had tears in his eyes, which was only the second time I’ve seen him cry — in 2001, when his wife died and in 2008, to go vote for President Obama. And he was illiterate, so I had to go push the button for him. So I went into the voting booth with him and, he wanted me to get it right. “Don’t mess this one up.” It moved me, I was crying with him, basically. What a hopeful day, for this nation. What a hopeful day. I hope that we relive that level of optimism about who we can be as one nation under God. Black History and America’s Capitol