To install click the Add extension button. That's it.

The source code for the WIKI 2 extension is being checked by specialists of the Mozilla Foundation, Google, and Apple. You could also do it yourself at any point in time.

4,5
Kelly Slayton
Congratulations on this excellent venture… what a great idea!
Alexander Grigorievskiy
I use WIKI 2 every day and almost forgot how the original Wikipedia looks like.
Live Statistics
English Articles
Improved in 24 Hours
Added in 24 Hours
Languages
Recent
Show all languages
What we do. Every page goes through several hundred of perfecting techniques; in live mode. Quite the same Wikipedia. Just better.
.
Leo
Newton
Brights
Milds

List of African-American United States senators

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Barack Obama was the first African American U.S. senator to be elected president of the United States.
Kamala Harris was the first African American U.S. senator to be elected vice president of the United States.

This is a list of African Americans who have served in the United States Senate. The Senate has had 12 African-American elected or appointed officeholders. Two each served during both the 19th and 20th centuries.[1]

Three of the 12 African American senators held Illinois's Class 3 seat, including Barack Obama, who went on to become President of the United States. This makes Illinois the state with the most African-American U.S. senators to date.

In 2016, Kamala Harris became the first African American to be elected a U.S. senator from California. Harris would go on to become the first African-American Vice President of the United States and first African-American president of the United States Senate.

Of the 12 African-American senators, seven were popularly elected (including one that previously had been appointed by his state's governor), two were elected by the state legislature prior to the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1913 (which mandated the direct election of U.S. senators by the people of each state), and three were appointed by a state governor and have not subsequently been elected.[citation needed]

YouTube Encyclopedic

  • 1/5
    Views:
    330 923
    110 158
    134 913
    207 225
    1 378 156
  • Best 10 Senators in American History
  • Worst 10 Senators in American History
  • Your U.S. Rep, Governor, and Senators. Find them here!
  • Martin Luther King, Jr: Crash Course Black American History #36
  • Congressional Committees: Crash Course Government and Politics #7

Transcription

Background

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, which is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. The U.S. Census Bureau defines "African Americans" as citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa.[2] The term is generally used for Americans with at least partial ancestry in any of the original peoples of sub-Saharan Africa.[citation needed]

During the founding of the federal government, African Americans were consigned to a status of second-class citizenship or enslaved.[3] No African American served in federal elective office before the ratification in 1870 of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, although some (including Alexander Twilight, as state senator in Vermont) served in state elective offices concurrently with slavery. The Fifteenth Amendment prohibits the federal and state governments from denying any citizen the right to vote because of that citizen's race, color, or previous condition of servitude.[citation needed]

History

Reconstruction to Obama: 1870–2011

Hiram Rhodes Revels (left) was the first African American to serve in the U.S. Senate; Carol Moseley Braun was the first African American woman elected to the chamber.

The first two African-American senators represented the state of Mississippi during the Reconstruction era, following the American Civil War. Hiram Rhodes Revels, the first African American to serve in the Senate, was elected in 1870[4] by the Mississippi State Legislature to succeed Albert G. Brown, who resigned during the Civil War. Some Democratic members of the United States Senate opposed his being seated based on the court case Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) by the Supreme Court of the United States, claiming that Revels did not meet the nine-year citizenship requirement, but the majority of senators voted to seat him.[4]

In 1872, the Louisiana state legislature elected P. B. S. Pinchback to the Senate. However, the 1872 elections in Louisiana were challenged by white Democrats, and Pinchback was never seated in Congress.

The Mississippi state legislature elected Blanche Bruce in 1875, but Republicans lost power of the Mississippi state legislature in 1876. Bruce was not elected to a second term in 1881.[4] In 1890, the Democratic-dominated state legislature passed a new constitution disfranchising most black voters. Every other Southern state also passed disfranchising constitutions by 1908, thus excluding African Americans from the political system in the entire former Confederacy. This situation persisted well into the 1960s, when federal enforcement of constitutional rights under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 commenced.

The next black United States senator, Edward Brooke of Massachusetts, took office in 1967. He was the first African American to be elected by popular vote after the ratification in 1913 of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which established direct election of United States senators instead of indirect election by a state legislature. A Republican, Brooke was the first black senator to serve two terms in the Senate, holding office until 1979.[4] From 1979 to 1993, there were no black members of the United States Senate.

Between 1993 and 2010, three black members of the Illinois Democratic Party would hold Illinois's Class 3 Senate seat at different times. Carol Moseley Braun entered the Senate in 1993 and was the first African-American woman in the Senate.[4] She served one term. Barack Obama entered the Senate in 2005 and, in 2008, became the first African American to be elected president of the United States.[5] Obama was still a senator when he was elected president and Roland Burris, also an African American, was appointed to fill the remainder of Obama's Senate term. Burris only briefly ran for election and did not enter the Democratic primary.[6] From 2011 to 2013, there were no black senators for the first time since Obama was elected in 2004.

Contemporary Period: 2013–present

Following Obama's election as president, the next two black senators, Tim Scott of South Carolina and Mo Cowan of Massachusetts, were both appointed by governors to fill the terms of Jim DeMint and John Kerry, respectively, who had resigned their positions.[4] Thus, 2013 marked the first time in history that more than one African American served in the Senate at the same time.[7] On October 16 of that year, citizens of New Jersey elected Cory Booker in a special election to fill the seat of the late senator Frank R. Lautenberg.[8] Sworn into office, Booker was the first African-American senator to be elected since Obama and the first to represent New Jersey. He was later elected to a full six-year term in the 2014 mid-term elections. Scott retained his seat in a special election in 2014 and also secured a full six-year term in 2016.

In 2017, Scott and Booker were joined by Kamala Harris of California.[9] Harris was the second African-American woman to serve in the Senate, and, in 2020, was elected as the first female vice president of the United States. In 2021, Raphael Warnock of Georgia was elected as the first African-American Democrat to represent a former Confederate state in the Senate.

As of January 20, 2021, there have been 1,994 members of the United States Senate,[10] of which 11 have been African American.[1]

List of African-American U.S. senators

Image Senator State Tenure Party Congress Notes
Start End Duration
Hiram Rhodes Revels
(1827–1901)
Mississippi February 25, 1870 March 3, 1871 1 year, 7 days Republican 41st
(1869–1871)
Elected to complete an unfinished term after Mississippi was readmitted to the Union on February 23, 1870. First African American to serve in the United States Senate and Congress. First African American to serve in Congress from Mississippi. Retired[11][12]
Blanche Bruce
(1841–1898)
Mississippi March 4, 1875 March 4, 1881 6 years, 0 days Republican 44th
(1875–1877)
First African American to serve a full six-year term as a United States senator. The only senator to be a former slave. Retired.[13][14]
45th
(1877–1879)
46th
(1879–1881)
Edward Brooke
(1919–2015)
Massachusetts January 3, 1967 January 3, 1979 12 years, 0 days Republican 90th
(1967–1969)
First African American elected to the Senate by direct election. First African American to serve in Congress from Massachusetts. Lost reelection.[15]
91st
(1969–1971)
92nd
(1971–1973)
93rd
(1973–1975)
94th
(1975–1977)
95th
(1977–1979)
Carol Moseley Braun
(born 1947)
Illinois January 3, 1993 January 3, 1999 6 years, 0 days Democratic 103rd
(1993–1995)
First African-American female and African-American Democrat to serve in the United States Senate. First African-American to serve in the Senate from Illinois. Lost reelection.[16][17]
104th
(1995–1997)
105th
(1997–1999)
Barack Obama
(born 1961)
Illinois January 3, 2005 November 16, 2008 3 years, 318 days Democratic 109th
(2005–2007)
First African-American senator to be elected President of the United States. Resigned following election as president.[5][18]
110th
(2007–2009)
Roland Burris
(born 1937)
Illinois January 15, 2009 November 29, 2010 1 year, 318 days Democratic 111th
(2009–2011)
Appointed by Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to fill vacancy caused by the resignation of President-elect Barack Obama. First African American to succeed another African American in the Senate. Not a candidate during special election following his appointment.[6]
Tim Scott
(born 1965)
South Carolina January 2, 2013 Incumbent 11 years, 46 days Republican 112th
(2011–2013)
Appointed by South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley to fill vacancy caused by the resignation of Jim DeMint. First African American to serve in the Senate from South Carolina. First African American to serve in both chambers of the United States Congress. [19][20]
113th
(2013–2015)
114th
(2015–2017)
115th
(2017–2019)
116th
(2019–2021)
117th
(2021–2023)
118th
(2023–present)
Mo Cowan
(born 1969)
Massachusetts February 1, 2013 July 16, 2013 165 days Democratic 113th
(2013–2015)
Appointed by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick to fill vacancy caused by the resignation of John Kerry. Not a candidate during special election following his appointment. First African-American senator appointed by an African-American governor. The first African American to serve alongside another African-American senator: Tim Scott. Retired.[21][22]
Cory Booker
(born 1969)
New Jersey October 31, 2013 Incumbent 10 years, 109 days Democratic 113th
(2013–2015)
First African American to serve in the Senate from New Jersey. First African American to be elected to the Senate by special election.[8][23][24]
114th
(2015–2017)
115th
(2017–2019)
116th
(2019–2021)
117th
(2021–2023)
118th
(2023–present)
Kamala Harris
(born 1964)
California January 3, 2017 January 18, 2021 4 years, 15 days Democratic 115th
(2017–2019)
First African-American to serve in the Senate from California. First African-American senator to be elected as Vice President. Resigned following election as Vice President of the United States.[note 1][27][28]
116th
(2019–2021)
117th
(2021–2023)
Raphael Warnock
(born 1969)
Georgia January 20, 2021 Incumbent 3 years, 28 days Democratic 117th
(2021–2023)
First African American to serve in the Senate from Georgia.[29]
118th
(2023–present)
Laphonza Butler
(born 1979)
California October 3, 2023 Incumbent 137 days Democratic 118th
(2023–present)
Appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom to fill the vacancy created by the death of Senator Dianne Feinstein.[30] First openly LGBT African-American Senator.[31]

African Americans elected to the United States Senate, but not seated

Image Senator-elect State Year elected Party Congress Notes
P. B. S. Pinchback
(1837–1921)
Louisiana 1873 Republican 44th
(1875–1877)
Denied seat due to a contested election that involved William L. McMillen.[32]

List of states represented by African Americans

Seven states have been represented by black senators. As of October 2023, four states are represented by black senators.

State Current Previous Total First black senator Years represented by black senators Year first elected a black senator
Alabama 0 0 0
Alaska 0 0 0
Arizona 0 0 0
Arkansas 0 0 0
California 1 1 2 Kamala Harris 2017–2021, 2023–present 2016
Colorado 0 0 0
Connecticut 0 0 0
Delaware 0 0 0
Florida 0 0 0
Georgia 1 0 1 Raphael Warnock 2021–present 2021
Hawaii 0 0 0
Idaho 0 0 0
Illinois 0 3 3 Carol Moseley-Braun 1993–1999, 2005–2008, 2009–2010 1992
Indiana 0 0 0
Iowa 0 0 0
Kansas 0 0 0
Kentucky 0 0 0
Louisiana 0 0 0
Maine 0 0 0
Maryland 0 0 0
Massachusetts 0 2 2 Edward Brooke 1967–1979, 2013 1966
Michigan 0 0 0
Minnesota 0 0 0
Mississippi 0 2 2 Hiram Rhodes Revels 1870–1871, 1875–1881 Prior to 17th Amendment
Missouri 0 0 0
Montana 0 0 0
Nebraska 0 0 0
Nevada 0 0 0
New Hampshire 0 0 0
New Jersey 1 0 1 Cory Booker 2013–present 2013
New Mexico 0 0 0
New York 0 0 0
North Carolina 0 0 0
North Dakota 0 0 0
Ohio 0 0 0
Oklahoma 0 0 0
Oregon 0 0 0
Pennsylvania 0 0 0
Rhode Island 0 0 0
South Carolina 1 0 1 Tim Scott 2013–present 2014
South Dakota 0 0 0
Tennessee 0 0 0
Texas 0 0 0
Utah 0 0 0
Vermont 0 0 0
Virginia 0 0 0
Washington 0 0 0
West Virginia 0 0 0
Wisconsin 0 0 0
Wyoming 0 0 0

Graphs

The histogram below sets forth the number of African Americans who served in the United States Senate during the periods provided.

Starting Total Graph
March 4, 1789 0  
February 25, 1870 1
March 4, 1871 0  
March 4, 1875 1
March 4, 1881 0  
January 3, 1967 1
January 4, 1979 0  
January 3, 1993 1
January 4, 1999 0  
January 3, 2005 1
November 17, 2008 0  
January 15, 2009 1
November 30, 2010 0  
January 2, 2013 1
February 1, 2013 2 ❚❚
July 17, 2013 1
October 31, 2013 2 ❚❚
January 3, 2017 3 ❚❚❚
January 18, 2021 2 ❚❚
January 20, 2021 3 ❚❚❚
October 3, 2023 4 ❚❚❚❚

Elections with two African-American major-party nominees

Elections with two African-American major-party nominees
Election year State Winner Second-place finisher
2004 Illinois Barack Obama Alan Keyes
2014 South Carolina Tim Scott Joyce Dickerson
2016 South Carolina Tim Scott Thomas Dixon
2022 Georgia Raphael Warnock Herschel Walker
South Carolina Tim Scott Krystle Matthews
Note: Incumbent Senators are in bold

See also

Federal government
State and local government

Notes

  1. ^ Harris is the child of a black, Caribbean-born father and an India-born mother.[25] Other African Americans who were elected to Congress and were born in the Caribbean or to Caribbean-born parents include Rep. Shirley Chisholm, Rep. Yvette D. Clarke, Del. Stacey Plaskett, Rep. Mia Love, Del. Melvin H. Evans, Del. Donna Christian-Christensen, and Del. Victor O. Frazer. Shirley Chisholm was the child of Caribbean-born parents and was the first African-American woman to be elected to Congress.[26]

References

  1. ^ a b "Ethnic Diversity in the Senate". Senate Historical Office. Retrieved January 20, 2021.
  2. ^ "The Black Population: 2010" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 31, 2019. Retrieved December 18, 2015.
  3. ^ "Time Line of African American History, 1881–1900". Library of Congress. Archived from the original on January 17, 1999. Retrieved October 22, 2007.
  4. ^ a b "Obama, Barack, (1961–)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. United States Congress. Archived from the original on August 5, 2011. Retrieved January 25, 2009.
  5. ^ a b "Burris, Roland, (1937–)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. United States Congress. Archived from the original on January 30, 2009. Retrieved January 25, 2009.
  6. ^ "U.S. Senate: African American Senators". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. ^ a b Walshe, Shushannah (January 30, 2013). "Cory Booker Wins Race for US Senate Seat in New Jersey". ABC News. Archived from the original on October 17, 2013. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  8. ^ Willon, Phil (November 9, 2016). "Kamala Harris is Elected California's New U.S. senator". LA Times. Archived from the original on November 14, 2016. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
  9. ^ "Senators of the United States: 1789–present" (PDF). Senate Historical Office. January 20, 2021. p. 82. Retrieved January 20, 2021.
  10. ^ "Revels, Hiram Rhodes, (1827–1901)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. United States Congress. Archived from the original on January 24, 2009. Retrieved January 25, 2009.
  11. ^ "First African American Senator". Historical Minutes Essays, 1878–1920. Senate Historical Office. Archived from the original on December 17, 2012. Retrieved January 4, 2013.
  12. ^ "Bruce, Blanche Kelso, (1841–1898)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. United States Congress. Archived from the original on January 25, 2009. Retrieved January 25, 2009.
  13. ^ "Former Slave Presides over Senate". Historical Minutes Essays, 1878–1920. Senate Historical Office. Archived from the original on January 21, 2013. Retrieved January 4, 2013.
  14. ^ "Brooke, Edward William, III, (1919–)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. United States Congress. Archived from the original on November 2, 2011. Retrieved January 25, 2009.
  15. ^ "Moseley Braun, Carol, (1947–)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. United States Congress. Archived from the original on October 15, 2012. Retrieved January 25, 2009.
  16. ^ "Carol Moseley Braun". Senate Historical Office. Archived from the original on December 17, 2012. Retrieved January 4, 2013.
  17. ^ "Barack Obama". Senate Historical Office. Archived from the original on December 18, 2012. Retrieved January 4, 2013.
  18. ^ "Scott, Tim, (1965–)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. United States Congress. Archived from the original on November 2, 2012. Retrieved November 18, 2014.
  19. ^ Blake, Aaron; Cillizza, Chris (December 17, 2012). "Nikki Haley appoints Rep. Tim Scott to Senate". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 7, 2013. Retrieved January 5, 2013.
  20. ^ "Cowan, William (Mo), (1969–)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. United States Congress. Archived from the original on December 6, 2014. Retrieved November 18, 2014.
  21. ^ Phillips, Frank (January 30, 2013). "William 'Mo' Cowan is Governor Deval Patrick's pick to serve as interim US senator". Boston Globe. Archived from the original on January 31, 2013. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
  22. ^ "Booker, Cory Anthony, (1969–)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. United States Congress. Archived from the original on November 26, 2014. Retrieved November 18, 2014.
  23. ^ Giambusso, David (October 23, 2013). "Cory Booker planning to be sworn in to Senate on Halloween". The Star-Ledger. NJ.com. Archived from the original on October 26, 2013. Retrieved October 26, 2013.
  24. ^ Wire, Sarah D. (November 8, 2016). "Kamala Harris Will Be the First Indian American U.S. senator and California's First Black Senator". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2 July 2018. Retrieved 1 July 2018. Harris' mother, Dr. Shyamala Harris, emigrated from India. Her father, Donald Harris, emigrated from Jamaica.
  25. ^ Wasniewski, Matthew, ed. (2008). "Shirley A. Chisholm 1924 — 2005". Black Americans in Congress, 1870–2007. United States Government Printing Office. p. 340. ISBN 9780160801945. Archived from the original on 2016-05-22. Retrieved 2017-05-23.
  26. ^ "Harris, Kamala Devi, (1964 – )". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. United States Congress. Archived from the original on January 6, 2017. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
  27. ^ Sources for label "African American" or "Black" include:
  28. ^ Peoples, Steve; Barrow, Bill; Bynum, Russ (January 6, 2021). "Warnock, Ossoff Win in Georgia, Handing Dems Senate Control". Associated Press. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
  29. ^ Cadelago, Christopher (October 1, 2023). "Newsom picks Laphonza Butler as Feinstein replacement". Politico. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
  30. ^ Reston, Maeve; Pager, Tyler (2023-10-02). "Newsom taps Emily's List leader to fill Feinstein's Senate seat". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2023-10-02.
  31. ^ Office of the Historian. "'Crafting an Identity,' Fifteenth Amendment in Flesh and Blood". Office of the Clerk, House of Representatives of the United States. Archived from the original on November 11, 2013. Retrieved August 7, 2013.

Further reading

External links

This page was last edited on 7 February 2024, at 19:50
Basis of this page is in Wikipedia. Text is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported License. Non-text media are available under their specified licenses. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. WIKI 2 is an independent company and has no affiliation with Wikimedia Foundation.