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Biography of Carol Mosely-BraunName: Carol Mosely-BraunBirth Date: August 16, 1947 Death Date: N/A Place of Birth: Chicago, Illinois, United States Nationality: American Gender: Female Occupations: senator Carol Mosely-Braun Carol Mosely-Braun (born 1947), Democrat from Chicago, Illinois, became the fourth African American and the first African American woman elected to the U.S. Senate when she defeated Republican Rich Williamson on November 3, 1992.Carol Mosely-Braun was born August 16, 1947, and began life in a middle-class Chicago neighborhood. Her father, a policeman, and her mother, a medical technician, divorced when Mosely-Braun was in her teens, and she moved in with her grandmother in an African American Chicago neighborhood. One of four children, her childhood was marred by a sometimes abusive father and the responsibilities of caring for her younger siblings. But her parents also imbued her with a sense of social responsibility that helps explain her political activism in high school. As a teenager she staged a one-person sit-in at a restaurant that refused to serve her, integrated a previously all-white beach, and marched with Martin Luther King, Jr., in a local civil …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…importance of having a more inclusive U.S. Senate.Mosely-Braun continued to make headlines in Washington. In 1994, she sponsored the education Infrastructure Act, which was designed to repair and restructure public schools with federal money. In 1995 she was appointed to the Senate Finance Committee thus making her the first woman to ever hold such a position. Mosely-Braun lost the 1998 election to Republican Peter Fitzgerald, after her campaign of negative ads backfired and hurt her more than her opponent. In November 1999, Mosely-Braun was confirmed as ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. After winning the support of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, she was overwhelmingly approved by a vote of 96-2 in the full Senate. Further Reading No full-length biography exists for Mosely-Braun, but good biographical material can be found in Karima A. Haynes, "Campaigning for History" in Ebony (June 1, 1992), and in Jill Nelson, "Carol Mosely-Braun: Power Beneath Her Wings" in Essence (October 1, 1992). |