Moseley Braun, Carol, born in 1947, Democratic member of the United States Senate from Illinois (1993-1999). Moseley Braun was the first black woman elected to the Senate. She was born in Chicago, Illinois, and attended neighborhood schools on Chicago’s South Side. She graduated from the University of Illinois-Chicago and then earned a law degree from the University of Chicago in 1972.

After briefly working in Chicago law firms, Moseley Braun became an assistant United States attorney in 1973, a position she held until 1977. In 1978 she was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives, where she served for ten years and became the first female assistant majority leader. She also ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor of Illinois. In 1988 Moseley Braun returned to Chicago and ran for Cook County recorder of deeds. Her victory in that election made her the first woman and the first African American to hold an elected executive position in the Cook County government.

In 1991 Moseley Braun challenged Senator Alan Dixon of Illinois, who had voted to confirm Clarence Thomas as associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She believed that Dixon’s support for Thomas, who had been accused of sexually harassing a female coworker, showed that he was out of touch with his female constituents. Moseley Braun won the three-person Illinois Democratic primary and defeated Republican Richard Williamson in the 1992 election. Moseley Braun and Senator Dianne Feinstein of California became the first women to serve on the influential Senate Judiciary Committee. In 1998 Moseley Braun was unsuccessful in her reelection effort. The following year she was named U.S. ambassador to New Zealand, a position she held until 2001. In 2003 Moseley Braun became a candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for president in the 2004 election, but she withdrew from the race before the first caucus in Iowa, throwing her support to Howard Dean.