Black Firsts in Government & Politics

Shirley A. Chisholm
First Black woman to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives

Shirley Anita Chisholm was the first black woman to serve in the United States House of Representatives.  She won her Congressional seat in 1968 by defeating another African American, James Farmer, a Republican Liberal and co-founder of the Congress for Racial Equity.  When Chisholm entered Congress in 1969 as a freshman Congresswoman, her class included 2 Black Congressmen: Louis Stokes of Ohio and William Clay of Missouri.

Hiram Rhodes Revels
First African American to serve in the U.S. Senate

Hiram Rhodes was the first African American to serve in the United States Senate.  In 1861, when Mississippi seceded from the Union, Democrat Albert Brown and future Confederate President Jefferson Davis vacated their US Senate seats.  On January 20, 1870, the Mississippi state legislature voted 85 to 15 to seat Revels in Brown's former seat.

Carol Moseley-Braun
First Black woman to serve in the U.S. Senate

In January 1993, Carol Moseley-Braun was sworn in as the freshman senator from Illinois, making her the first Black woman to serve as a United States Senator.  During her term she sponsored progressive education bills and advocated for civil rights issues and gun control. Moseley-Braun served in the senate for one term.  She left the senate in 1999 and soon after became the U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand, a position she held until 2001.  She later unsuccessfully ran to be the Democratic nominee for president in 2004.

Edward William Brooke III

Edward Brooke was the first African American elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote.  After serving two terms as Attorney General for the state of Massachusetts, he announced his candidacy for the Senate seat left vacant by the retirement of Leverett Saltonstall.  On November 8, 1966, he defeated Democrat Endicott Peabody, who had the backing of Senator Ted Kennedy, by winning 62 percent of the vote.  On the opening day of the 90^th Congress, senior Senator Kennedy, keeping with tradition, escorted newly elected Brooke down the aisle of the Senate Chamber.

Ralph Bunche
First African American to win the Nobel Peace Prize

In 1946 UN Secretary-General Trygve Lie sent Ralph Bunche, then a member of the state department, to the Middle East to help devise a plan for dividing Palestine between Arabs and Jews.  A UN resolution concerning a Jewish state was rejected and war broke out.  When the chief UN negotiator, Folke Bernadotte was murdered in 1948, Bunche had to replace him.  The following year and after tough negotiations, Bunche succeeded in bringing about a cease-fire that ended the first Arab-Israeli war. In 1950 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his Middle East negotiations.