"Carol Moseley Braun"(August 16, 1947)

Is an American feminist politician and lawyer who represented Illinois in the United States Senate from 1993 to 1999.She was the first and to date only African-American woman elected to the United States Senate,the first woman to defeat an incumbent senator in an election,and the first and to date only female Senator from Illinois. From 1999 to 2001,she was the United States Ambassador to New Zealand.Carol was a candidate for the Democratic nomination during the the 2004 U.S. presidential election.Following the public announcement by Richard M. Daley that would not seek re-election,in November 2010,she began her campaign for Mayor of Chicago.The former Senator placed fourth in a field of six candidates, losing the February 22,2011 election to Rahm Emanuel.Carol Elizabeth Moseley was born in Chicago,Illinois.She attended public and parochial schools.Carol attended Ruggles School for elementary school,and she attended Parker High School(now the site of Paul Robeson High School) in Chicago.Her father Joseph Moseley,was a Chicago,police officer  and jail guard and her mother,Edna,was a medical technician in a hospital.Both of her parents were catholic.The family lived in a segregated middle-class neighborhood in the South Side of Chicago.Her parents divorced when she was in teens,and she lived with her grandmother.She began her college studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Campaign,but dropped out after four months.She then majored in political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago,graduating in 1969 and earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1972.As an attorney,Carol was a prosecutor in the United States Attorney's office in Chicago from 1973 to 1977.An assistant United States Attorney,she worked primarily in the civil and appellate law areas.Her work in housing,health policy,environment law won her the Attorney Generals Special Achievement Award.Carol was first elected in public office in 1978,as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives.There, she rose to the post of assistant majority leader.As a  State Representative,she became recognized as a champion for liberal social causes.As early as 1984,she proposed a moratorium on the application in Illinois of the death penalty.An in what became a landmark reapportionment case,Crosby v.State Board of elections,she successfully sued her own party and the state of Illinois on behalf of African American and Hispanic citizens.When she left the state legislature in 1987,her colleagues recognized her in a resolution as "the conscience of the house.That same year,she was elected as cook Cook County,Illinois,Recorder of deeds,a post she held for four years.In 1991,angered by incumbent Democratic senator Alan Dixon's vote to confirm Clarence Thomas,Carol challenged him in the primary election.Candidate Albert Hofeld's campaign ran many anti-Dixon ads, and Carol won the Democratic senate primary.On November 3,1992,she became the first African-American woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate,defeating Republican Richard S.Williamson.Her election marked the first time Illinois had elected a woman,and the second time a black person was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate.She (along with Edward Brooke was one of two African-American to serve in the Senate in the 20th century,and was the sole African-American in the Senate for her entire term.She was  a one-term Senator,losing to Republican Peter Fitzgerald in her re-election bid in 1998.Despite her reputation as a liberal,Carol possessed something of a centrist record on economic issues.She voted for the 1993 budget package and against the welfare reform laws passed in 1996,but on many other matters she was more conservative.Carol voted in favor of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and lawsuit reform measures like the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (she was also among the minority of Democrats to support the even more controversial Common Sense Product Liability and Legal Reform Act of 1995).She also voted contrary to the interest of the more populist wing of the party by voting for the Freedom to Farm Act and the Telecommunications Act of 1996.Like her Illinois colleague,fellow Democrat Paul Simon,she voted in favor of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and also to place a nuclear spent spent fuel storage facility in Nevada,a more strongly opposed by many Democrats,especially current Majority Leader Harry Reid.On social issues she was significantly more liberal than many of her fellow senators.Carol strongly pro-choice,voting against the ban on partial-birth abortions and the restrictions on funding in military bases for abortions.Carol also voted against the death penalty and in favor of gun control measures.She was one of only sixteen senators to vote against the Communications Decency Act and one of only fourteen to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act.Carol delivered a eulogy to Thurgood Marshall on January 26,1993.In 1993,Carol made headlines when she convinced the Senate judiciary Committee not to renew a design patent for the United Daughters of the Confederacy because it contained the Confederate Flag,declaring,"it has no place in our modern times,place in this body,place in our society."Swayed by Carol argument,the Senate rejected the UDC's application to renew its patent.She was the subject of a 1993 Federal Elections Commission investigation over $249,000 in unaccountable-for campaign funds.The agency found some small violations,against Carol,citing lack of resources.Carol only admitted to bookkeeping errors.The Justice Department turned down two requests for investigations from the IRS.In 1996, she made a private trip to Nigeria,where she met dictator Sani Abacha.Despite U.S. sanctions against that country due to Abacha's actions,the Senator did not notify,nor register her trip with the State Department.She subsequently defended Sani's human rights record Congress.Her former fiancee Kgosie Matthews,who also served on her campaign staff(in violation of U.S. immigration regulations),had been a lobbist for the Nigerian government;Kgosie would later leave the country.She had paid him, a native of South Africa,a salary of $15,000 a month during the campaign.Carol annouced her intention to run for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in February 2003.On January 15,2004,four days before days before the Iowa caucuses,she dropped out of the race and endorsed Howard Dean.In November 2010,Carol announced she would run in the 2011 Chicago mayoral election,after mayor Richard M. Daley announced he would seek re-election.In early 2011 potentially strong strong African-American candidates,congressman Danny Davis, and state Senator James Meeks left the race and endorsed Carol,making her the so-called consensus black candidate.