The Black History Story
(African Americans)
The Black People or “African Americans” one of the largest of the many ethnic groups in the “United States”. African Americans or The Black people are major of African ancestry, but many people have non-black ancestors as well. African Americans are largely the descendants of enslaved people who were brought from their African homelands by forced to work in “New world”. Their rights were severely limited by British and they were long denied a rightful share in the economic, social and political progress of the united states. Nevertheless, African people have made basic and lasting contributions to American history and culture. The latter half of the 18th century was a time of political upheaval in the united states. In the midst of cries for independence from British Rule, people pointed out the apparent hypocrisies of slave holder’s demanding freedom.
Hiram Revels
When we look at the political background of African American people the 1st black senator of the America was “Hiram Revels”. With the pending ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, they set the stage for the election of Congress’s first African American members. One of the first orders of business for the new Mississippi state legislature when it convened on 11th January 1870, was to fill the vacancies in the United States Senate which had remained empty since the 1861 withdrawal of Albert Brown and future Confederate president Jefferson Davis. Representing around one-quarter of the state legislative body. The black legislators insisted that one of the vacancies be filled by a black member of the Republican Party. “An opportunity of electing a Republican to the United States Senate, to fill an unexpired term occurred,” Revels later recalled, “and the colored members after consulting together on the subject, agreed to give their influence and votes for one of their own race for that position, as it would in their judgement be a weakening blow against color line prejudice.” Since Revels had impressed his colleagues with an impassioned prayer at the opening of the session and legislators agreed that the shorter of the two terms, set to expire in March 1871 would go to him.
Blanche K. Bruce
He was born into slavery in 1841 at Blanche K. Bruce and he 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. He was 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 is now on displaying in the U.S. Capitol.
Edward Brooke
The first African American elected to the Senate by popular vote was Edward Brooke . He served two full terms, from 1967 to 1979. He was 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.
Carol Moseley Braun
Someone 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 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 she 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 and this position she held until 2001. Moseley Braun ran for the Democratic nomination for president in 2004.
Barack Obama
Barack Obama was born in Hawaii on 4th of august 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 and he took the oath of office and became the fifth African American to serve in the Senate on 3rd of January 2005. On November 4, 2008 Barack Obama was elected as the 44th president of the United States and unfortunately He was reelected in 2012.
Roland W. Burris
Roland W. Burris Born in Centralia, Illinois, on August 3, 1937. Roland Burris earned a bachelor of arts degree in political science from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and a juris doctor degree from Howard University. After the end of law school studies 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. He was 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.
Tim Scott
Tim Scott Appointed to the Senate on 2nd of January 2013, Tim Scott became the first African American since Reconstruction to represent a southern state in the Senate. He was born in North Charleston, South Carolina, on 19th September 1965 and 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 he was a member of the South Carolina house of representatives from 2009 until 2010. He 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 3rd January 2017, and to a full term in 2016.
William “Mo” Cowan
As a Massachusetts senator William “Mo” Cowan appointed on 1st of February 2013. It marked as the first time that two African Americans have served simultaneously in the United States Senate. He was born in Yadkinville in North Carolina in 1969. Cowan is a bachelor of arts degree in sociology from Duke University and a juris doctor degree from Northeastern University School of Law. After he finished 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 15th of July 2013, he was a successor having been chosen in a special election. He was not a candidate for election to the unexpired portion of the term.
Cory A. Booker
Mr. Cory Booker who was the first African American to represent New Jersey in the United States Senate on 31st of October 2013. He was born in Washington, D.C. He studied his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Stanford before attending The Queen’s College. As a Rhodes Scholar, he studied at University of Oxford where he received a graduate degree in 1994. Mr. Booker then attended Yale Law School, to earning his juris doctor degree in 1997. He worked on the Newark City Council from 1998 to 2002. Then as a mayor of Newark from 2006 to 2013. Cory A. Booker was elected to the United States Senate in a special election on 16th of October 2013, to the vacancy caused by the death of Frank Lautenberg there were a seat subsequently held by appointed senator Jeffrey Chiesa, and took the oath of office on 31st of October 2013, for the term ending 3rd of January 2015. He was elected to a full term in November 2014 and then reelected in November 2020.
In present U.S.A….
Kamala D. Harris
Mrs. Kamala D. Harris became the first African American to represent California in the United States Senate. On the 3rd of January 2017. She was 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 was served as the deputy district attorney in the 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 children’s justice bureau. Harris was the first African American and first woman who elected district attorney of San Francisco and attorney general of California. On 3rd of November 2020, she became the first woman and the first African American and Asian American elected “ Vice President ”of the United States, with the ticket with former senator and vice president Joe Biden of Delaware. They were sworn into office on 20th January 2021.
Raphael G. Warnock
Mr. Raphael G. Warnock became the first African American senator from Georgia on January 20, 2021. He was born 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 the year of 2005 he became senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. Warnock proudly challenged appointed senator Kelly Loffler 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 Loffler on January 5, 2021. Warnock won in the election by two percentage points, 51 to 49. Warnock has described himself as a “prochoice” pastor.
