On October 1, 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom chose well-known labor organizer and political strategist Laphonza Butler to be the next US Senator from California, following the death of long-serving Senator Dianne Feinstein on September 29, 2023. Butler, who was sworn in by Vice President … Read MoreLaphonza Romanique Butler (1979- )
Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, established 1864, was the first African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E. church) in the state of Mississippi and the site for T.W. Stringer Grand Lodge of Freemasonry for the State of Mississippi in Vicksburg founded by Rev. T.W. Stinger in 1867, as … Read MoreBethel African Methodist Episcopal Church (1864- )
Robert Harold Ogle (born April 3, 1886) was a founder (Jewel) of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. (the oldest existing African American fraternity) and the first African American known to serve as a professional Senate committee staffer. Born to Jeremiah and Mary Ellen Ogle in … Read MoreRobert Harold Ogle (1886-1936)
This entry is for juvenile audiences. To see the full version of this entry, click here. Who are they: On November 3, 2020, Kamala Devi Harris was elected Vice-President of the United States. She is the first Black woman and first woman of South Asian … Read MoreKamala Devi Harris (1964- ) [Children’s Edition]
Who are they: U.S. Senator Raphael G. Warnock was born July 23, 1969, in Savannah, Georgia. He had 11 brothers and sisters, and they lived in a housing project called Kayton. Housing “projects” are known for being low-income areas where mostly people of color live … Read MoreRaphael G. Warnock (1969- ) [Children’s Edition]
Raphael Gamaliel Warnock is the senior pastor at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, once led by Reverends Martin Luther King Sr., and Martin Luther King Jr, in Atlanta, Georgia. On January 5, 2021 he made history by becoming the first African American elected to represent … Read MoreRaphael G. Warnock (1969- )
On January 15, 2009 Roland Wallace Burris was sworn in as the U.S. Senator from Illinois. Burris’s appointment made him the third African American U.S. Senator from the state and the sixth black U.S. Senator in the history of the United States. The appointment, however, … Read MoreRoland Burris (1937- )
Hiram Rhodes Revels was a Republican U.S. Senator, minister in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, and the first African American to serve in the U.S. Senate. Revels was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina on September 27, 1827, to a family that had been free … Read MoreHiram Rhodes Revels (1827-1901)
Blanche Kelso Bruce was born a slave in 1841 in Prince Edward County, Virginia but was raised in Missouri. Shortly after the beginning of the Civil War, Bruce fled to Kansas, becoming a free man before Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. After the Civil War he returned … Read MoreBlanche Kelso Bruce (1841-1898)
Carol Moseley Braun, the first black woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate, was born in Chicago, Illinois on August 16, 1947. She attended the Chicago Public Schools and received a degree from the University of Illinois in 1969. She earned her degree from … Read MoreCarol Moseley Braun (1947- )
