11 African Americans in the US House of Senates
The US Senate represents the upper chamber of the United States Congress, same as the House of Representatives represents the lower chamber. The national bicameral legislature of the United States is made of these two.
The structure and authorities of the Senate are recognized by Article 1 of the United States Constitution. Senatorsconstitute of the Senate, with each representing 1 state in its totality.
A state is evenly represented by 2 senators in a term of 6 years. Currently 100 senators represent a total of fifty states. The presiding officer of the Senate House is the vice president of the United States, and has a vote only if the senators are evenly separated.
The president pro tempore may preside over the Senate in the absence of the vice president.
Below would give detailed history of all African American’s that have served and currently serving in the United States House of Senate.
The Senate has had 11 African-American voted into office. Two each operated during both the 19th and 20th centuries.
However, of the 8 African Americans ever to serve in the U.S. Senate since the African American Civil Rights Movement, three assumed Illinois’s Class 3 seat, including Barack Obama, who advanced to become the President of the United States. Making Illinois the state with the most African-American U.S. senators to date.
Kamala Harris is also the first African American to be elected a U.S. senator from California, who would also go on to become the first African-American Vice President of the United States and 1st African American President of the US Senate.
Let delve into the List of African-American U.S. senators below
| No | Name | State | Period Served | Party | Congress | Note |
| 1 | Hiram Rhodes Revels (1827–1901) | Mississippi | 1870 – 1871 | Republican | 41st | Retired |
| 2 | Blanche Bruce
(1841–1898) |
Mississippi | 1875 – 1881 | Republican | 41th–46th | Retired |
| 3 | Edward Brooke
(1919–2015) |
Massachusetts | 1967 – 1979 | Republican | 90th–95th | Lost reelection |
| 4 | Carol Moseley Braun
(Born 1947) |
Illinois | 1993 – 1999 | Democratic | 103rd – 105th | Lost reelection |
| 5 | Barack Obama
(Born 1961) |
Illinois | 2005 – 2008 | Democratic | 109th – 110th | Resigned following election as President of the United States
|
| 6 | Roland Burris
(Born 1937) |
Illinois | 2009 – 2010 | Democratic | 111th | Retired |
| 7 | Tim Scott
(Born 1965) |
South Carolina | 2013 till date | Republican | 112th – 117th | |
| 8 | Mo Cowan
(Born 1969) |
Massachusetts | 2013 – 2013 | Democratic | 113th | Retired |
| 9 | Cory Booker
(born 1969) |
New Jersey | 2013 till date | Democratic | 113th – 117th | |
| 10 | Kamala Harris
(Born 1964) |
California
|
2017 – 2021 | Democratic | 115th – 117th | Resigned following election as Vice President of the United States. |
| 11 | Raphael Warnock
(Born 1969) |
Georgia | 2021 till date | Democratic | 117th |
