Former Democratic U.S. Senator Carol Moseley Braun represented Illinois in the Senate from 1993 to 1999. Prior to her Senate tenure, Moseley Braun was a member of the Illinois House of Representatives from 1979 to 1988 and served as Cook County Recorder of Deeds from 1988 to 1992. The diplomat, politician, and lawyer was the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Senate, the first woman to defeat an incumbent U.S. senator in an election, and the first female U.S. Senator from Illinois.
Born in 1947, Moseley lived in a segregated middle-class neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. She attended the University of Illinois at Chicago and received a law degree from the University of Chicago. She became interested in politics early on and worked on the campaign of Harold Washington, an Illinois state representative, U.S. Representative, and first Black mayor of Chicago, and later the campaign of Illinois state senator Richard Newhouse.
Moseley married her husband, now ex-husband, Michael Braun in 1973 and worked as a prosecutor in the office of the U.S. Attorney in Chicago from 1973 until 1977. She won election to the Illinois state house of representatives in 1978, and during her decade of service became known for her advocacy of healthcare, education reform, and gun control. She then became the first Black woman named assistant leader for the Democratic majority. She also sponsored the creation of the Sacagawea coin to recognize women of color and a National Park Service initiative to fund historic preservation of the Underground Railroad.
Moseley was elected the Cook County, Illinois, recorder of deeds in 1988, becoming the first Black person to hold an executive position in Cook County. Deeply unhappy with U.S. Senator Alan Dixon’s support of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, she decided to run against Dixon in the 1992 Democratic primary and won, later becoming the first black woman to be elected to the Senate. She served one term and was the only Black person in the Senate during her tenure.
From 1999 to 2001, Moseley Braun served as U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. In January 2023, President Joe Biden nominated her to be Member and Chair of the United States African Development Foundation.