To date, 11 African Americans have served in the United States Senate. In 1870 Hiram Revels of Mississippi became the first African American senator. Five years later, Blanche K. Bruce of Mississippi took the oath of office. It would be nearly another century, 1967, before Edward Brooke of Massachusetts followed in their historic footsteps. Carol Moseley Braun broke new ground in 1993, becoming the first African American woman to serve as U.S. senator. In 2005 Barack Obama of Illinois became the fifth African American to serve and third to be popularly elected. Upon Obama's resignation to become the nation's first African American president, Roland Burris was appointed to fill the vacancy, becoming the sixth African American senator and the third to occupy the same Illinois Senate seat. Tim Scott of South Carolina was appointed to fill a vacancy in 2013, becoming the first African American since Reconstruction to represent a southern state in the Senate. He won a special election in 2014 to complete the term and was elected to a full term in 2016. The appointment of Massachusetts senator William "Mo" Cowan on February 1, 2013, marked the first time that two African Americans have served simultaneously in the United States Senate. Cory Booker of New Jersey became the ninth African American senator when he won a special election to replace Senator Frank Lautenberg on October 31, 2013. Booker won election to a full term in 2014. Kamala Harris became California's first African American senator on January 3, 2017, bringing the number of African Americans serving simultaneously to three and the total number of African American senators to 10. In January 2021 Raphael Warnock of Georgia won a run-off election to complete the term of Johnny Isakson, bringing the total number of African American senators to 11. Kamala Harris became the first woman and the first African American elected as vice president of the United States in November 2020 and resigned her Senate seat on January 18, 2021.
Hiram Revels (R-MS) became the first African American senator in 1870. Born in North Carolina in 1827, Revels attended Knox College in Illinois and later served as minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore, Maryland. He raised two black regiments during the Civil War and fought at the battle of Vicksburg in Mississippi. The Mississippi state legislature sent him to the U.S. Senate during Reconstruction, where he became an outspoken opponent of racial segregation. Although Revels served in the Senate for just a year, he broke new ground for African Americans in Congress. (Photo: Library of Congress)
Born into slavery in 1841, Blanche K. Bruce (R-MS) spent his childhood years in Virginia where he received his earliest education from the tutor hired to teach his master's son. At the dawn of the Civil War, Bruce escaped slavery and traveled north to begin a distinguished career in education and politics. Elected to the Senate in 1874 by the Mississippi state legislature, he served from 1875 to 1881. In 2002 the Senate commissioned a new portrait of Bruce, now on display in the U.S. Capitol. (Photo: Library of Congress)
The first African American elected to the Senate by popular vote, Edward Brooke (R-MA) served two full terms, from 1967 to 1979. Born in Washington, D.C., in 1919, Brooke graduated from Howard University before serving in the United States Army during World War II. After the war, he received his juris doctor degree from Boston University. During his Senate career he championed the causes of low-income housing and an increased minimum wage and promoted commuter rail and mass transit systems. He also worked tirelessly to promote racial equality in the South. (Photo: Senate Historical Office)
Some called 1992 the "Year of the Woman." More women than ever before were elected to political office in November of that year, and five of them came to the U.S. Senate. Carol Moseley Braun (D-IL) not only joined that class on January 3, 1993, but also became the first African American woman ever to serve as U.S. senator. During her Senate career, Moseley Braun sponsored progressive education bills and campaigned for gun control. Moseley Braun left the Senate in January of 1999 and soon after became the U.S. ambassador to New Zealand, a position she held until 2001. Moseley Braun ran for the Democratic nomination for president in 2004. (Photo: Senate Historical Office)
Barack Obama (D-IL) was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961. He received his elementary and high school education in Indonesia and Hawaii and graduated from Columbia University in 1983. He moved to Chicago in 1985 to work for a church-based group seeking to improve living conditions in poor neighborhoods. In 1991 Obama graduated from Harvard Law School where he was the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review. He served in the Illinois state senate from 1997 to 2004. Elected to the United States Senate in November of 2004, he took the oath of office and became the fifth African American to serve in the Senate on January 3, 2005. On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama was elected as the 44th president of the United States. He was reelected in 2012. (Photo: Senate Historical Office)
Born in Centralia, Illinois, on August 3, 1937, Roland Burris (D-IL) earned a bachelor of arts degree in political science from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and a juris doctor degree from Howard University. After finishing law school in 1963, Burris became the first African American to work as a national bank examiner for the Treasury Department. When Burris was elected comptroller of Illinois in 1978, he was the first African American to win a statewide election in Illinois. After serving more than 10 years as comptroller, he became attorney general of Illinois. Appointed to the Senate on December 31, 2008, Burris filled the vacancy caused by the resignation of Barack Obama. He served in the Senate until November 29, 2010, a successor having been chosen in a special election. He was not a candidate for election to the unexpired portion of the term. (Photo: Senate Historical Office)
Appointed to the Senate on January 2, 2013, Tim Scott (R-SC) became the first African American since Reconstruction to represent a southern state in the Senate. Born in North Charleston, South Carolina, on September 19, 1965, Scott attended Presbyterian College in Clinton before graduating with a bachelor of science degree from Charleston Southern University in 1988. An entrepreneur, Scott pursued a career in insurance and real estate. He served on the Charleston County council from 1995 until 2008 and was a member of the South Carolina house of representatives from 2009 until 2010. Elected as a Republican to the 112th Congress, Scott served one term in the House of Representatives before being appointed to the United States Senate. He was elected in a 2014 special election for the term ending January 3, 2017, and to a full term in 2016. (Photo: Senate Historical Office)
The appointment of Massachusetts senator William "Mo" Cowan (D-MA) on February 1, 2013, marked the first time that two African Americans have served simultaneously in the United States Senate. Born in Yadkinville, North Carolina, in 1969, Cowan earned a bachelor of arts degree in sociology from Duke University and a juris doctor degree from Northeastern University School of Law. After finishing law school in 1994, Cowan practiced civil litigation and became a partner in a law firm. Prior to entering the Senate, he served as chief legal counsel and chief of staff to Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick. Cowan served in the Senate until July 15, 2013, a successor having been chosen in a special election. He was not a candidate for election to the unexpired portion of the term. (Photo: Senate Historical Office)
Cory Booker (D-NJ) became the first African American to represent New Jersey in the United States Senate on October 31, 2013. Born in Washington, D.C., he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Stanford before attending The Queen’s College, University of Oxford, Oxford, England, as a Rhodes Scholar, where he received a graduate degree in 1994. Booker then attended Yale Law School, earning his juris doctor degree in 1997. He served on the Newark City Council from 1998 to 2002 and then as mayor of Newark from 2006 to 2013. Booker was elected to the United States Senate in a special election on October 16, 2013, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Frank Lautenberg, a seat subsequently held by appointed senator Jeffrey Chiesa, and took the oath of office on October 31, 2013, for the term ending January 3, 2015. He was elected to a full term in November 2014, and reelected in November 2020. (Photo: Senate Historical Office)
Kamala D. Harris (D-CA) became the first African American to represent California in the United States Senate on January 3, 2017. Born in Oakland, California, Harris graduated from Howard University in Washington, D.C., before returning to California to attend the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. After earning her juris doctor degree, Harris served as the deputy district attorney in Alameda County, California, before becoming the managing attorney in the San Francisco District Attorney's Office and then chief of the Division on Children and Families, where she established California’s first Bureau of Children’s Justice. Harris was the first African American and first woman elected district attorney of San Francisco (2004–2011) and attorney general of California (2011–2016). On November 3, 2020, she became the first woman and the first African American and Asian American elected vice president of the United States, on the ticket with former senator and vice president Joe Biden of Delaware. They were sworn into office on January 20, 2021.(Photo: Senate Historical Office)
Raphael G. Warnock (D-GA) became the first African American senator from Georgia on January 20, 2021. Born and raised in Savannah, Georgia, Warnock earned a bachelor’s degree from Morehouse College and then a master’s degree and PhD in divinity at Union Theological Seminary in New York. In 2005 he became senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. Warnock challenged appointed senator Kelly Loeffler for the remainder of the term ending January 3, 2023, in Georgia’s Class 3 seat. None of the candidates won the required 50+ percent of the vote, so a run-off election took place for the top two candidates—Warnock and Loeffler—on January 5, 2021. Warnock won the election by two percentage points, 51 to 49.
