Now that John Kerry is the incoming Secretary of State, the state of Massachusetts has an open Senate seat. William “Mo” Cowan is Gov. Deval Patrick's choice for John Kerry’s Senate seat. He is joining Tim Scott, another newly appointed Black Senator. Scott was appointed by South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.Mo + Tim = 2 Black Senators
In slightly more sophisticated terms, that means African Americans makeup 2% of the Senators in a nation that is 12.6% African American. Moreover, the appointment of Tim Scott and Mo Cowan only brings the total number of Black Senators in the history of the United States Senate to 8.
2. Blanche Bruce Mississippi (1874)
3. Edward Brooke Massachusetts (1967)
4. Carol Moseley Braun Illinois (1993)
5. Barack Obama Illinois (2004)
6. Roland Burris Illinois (2008)
7. Tim Scott South Carolina (2013)
8. William "Mo" Cowan Massachusetts (2013)
Three of the nation's Black Senators were elected by popular vote. Senator Brooke was elected in 1966 as a Republican in Massachusetts. Brooke served until 1979. The next popularly elected Black Senator was Carol Moseley Braun. She was the first and only African American female to serve in the Senate. Democrat Braun served the state of Illinois from 1993 to 1999. The most recent popularly elected Black Senator was Barack Obama who served the state of Illinois as a Democrat from 2005 to 2008. Obama went on to serve two terms as President of the United States. (If you hadn't heard that he won, then we wanted to point that out to you.) The other Black Senators were appointed by their state senate or governors.
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