Carol Elizabeth Moseley Braun (born August 16, 1947)
Early life
Carol Elizabeth Moseley was born in
Chicago, Illinois. She attended public and parochial schools. She attended Ruggles School for elementary school, and she attended Parker High School (now the site of
Paul Robeson High School) in Chicago.
[3][4] Her father, Joseph Moseley, was a Chicago police officer and jail guard and her mother, Edna, was a medical technician in a hospital. Both her parents were Catholic.
[5] The family lived in a segregated middle-class neighborhood in the South Side of Chicago. Her parents divorced when she was in her teens, and she lived with her grandmother.
[6] She began her college studies at the
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, but dropped out after four months.
[4] She then majored in political science at the
University of Illinois at Chicago,
[7] graduating in 1969 and earned a
Juris Doctor degree from the
University of Chicago Law School in 1972.
Professional career
As an
attorney, Moseley Braun 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, and environmental law won her the Attorney General's Special Achievement Award.
[8] Early political career
Moseley Braun was first elected to 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.
[9] As early as 1984, she proposed a moratorium on the application in Illinois of the death penalty. And in what became a landmark reapportionment case, Crosby vs 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."
[10] That same year, she was elected as
Cook County, Illinois,
Recorder of Deeds, a post she held for four years.
U.S. Senate
Elections
U.S. Senator Moseley Braun
In 1991, angered by incumbent Democratic senator
Alan Dixon's vote to confirm
Clarence Thomas, Moseley Braun challenged him in the primary election. Candidate
Albert Hofeld's campaign ran many anti-Dixon ads, and Moseley Braun won the Democratic senate primary. On November 3, 1992, she became the first
African American woman to be elected to the United States 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 United States Senate. She (along with
Edward Brooke) was one of two African-Americans to serve in the Senate in the 20th century and was the sole African-American in the Senate for her entire term.
Positions
On social issues however, she was significantly more liberal than many of her fellow senators. She was strongly
pro-choice, voting against the ban on
partial-birth abortions and the restrictions on funding in military bases for abortions. She also voted against the
death penalty and in favor of
gun control measures. Moseley Braun 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. She delivered a eulogy to Thurgood Marshall on January 26, 1993.
In 1993, the Illinois Senator 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. The patent had been routinely renewed for nearly a century, and despite the Judiciary Committee's disapproval, the Senate was poised to pass a resolution sponsored by Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina that included a provision to authorize the extension of the federal patent. Moseley-Braun threatened to filibuster the legislation "until this room freezes over." She also made a plea to her colleagues about the symbolism of the Confederate flag, declaring, "It has no place in our modern times, place in this body, place in our society." Swayed by Moseley-Braun's argument, the Senate rejected the UDC's application to renew its patent.
[11] Controversy
Moseley Braun was the subject of a 1993
Federal Election Commission investigation over $249,000 in unaccounted-for campaign funds. The agency found some small violations, but took no action against Moseley Braun, citing a lack of resources. Moseley Braun only admitted to bookkeeping errors. The
Justice Department turned down two requests for investigations from the
IRS.
[12]In 1996, Moseley Braun made a private trip to
Nigeria, where she met with 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 Abacha's human rights records in Congress.
[13] Her former fiancé Kgosie Matthews, who also served on her campaign staff (in violation of
U.S. immigration regulations
[14]), had been a
lobbyist for the Nigerian government; Matthews would later leave the country. She had paid Matthews, a native of South Africa, a salary of $15,000 a month during the campaign.
[15] Braun is on the advisory board of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.
[citation needed]In 1998, after
George Will wrote a column reviewing the allegations of corruption against her,
[16] Moseley Braun responded to Will's comments, saying that "I think because he couldn't say nigger, he said corrupt,"
[17] She also compared Will to a
Ku Klux Klansman, saying "I mean this very sincerely from the bottom of my heart: He can take his hood and put it back on again, as far as I'm concerned."
[18] Later, Moseley Braun apologized for her remarks.
[17] Ambassadorship
2004 presidential campaign
She announced her intention to run for the Democratic Party
presidential nomination in February 2003. On January 15, 2004, four days before the
Iowa caucuses, Moseley Braun dropped out of the race and endorsed
Howard Dean.
2011 Chicago mayoral candidate
U.S. Senator Moseley Braun
Moseley Braun came in fourth in the field of six, receiving about nine percent of the vote. In her concession speech, she remarked that her young niece could become the first female mayor of Chicago,
[28] neglecting to mention
Jane Byrne, Chicago's first female mayor, who served from 1979 to 1983.
[29] Life outside of politics
Personal life
In 1973, she married Michael Braun, whom she met in law school.
[5] They had one son, Matthew, in 1977. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1986.
[9] She resides in
Hyde Park, Chicago. She is a member of the
Delta Sigma Theta sorority.
Crime victim
In April 2007, Braun suffered a broken wrist when a
mugger emerged from bushes near her front door to steal her purse, cutting the strap with a knife. Braun resisted and fell during the struggle, fracturing her left wrist. The mugger was chased off by a
University of Chicago student while his girlfriend called
9-1-1. Braun was later treated and released from a hospital.
[31] A suspect, Joseph Dixon, was later charged with the crime and was sentenced to 20 years in prison on July 11, 2008.
[32]Home Foreclosure
Braun's financial problems made headlines in October 2012 when it was revealed that her home was in foreclosure as she had been unable to make any mortgage payments for over a year. Before she was evicted, she managed to sell her house although the sale was "underwater" as she sold it for approximately $200,000 less than the amount she still owed on her loan.
[33] Electoral history
| Illinois U.S. Senate Election 1992 - Democratic Primary |
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| Democratic | Carol Moseley Braun | 557,694 | 38.30 | |
| Democratic | Alan Dixon (incumbent) | 504,077 | 34.61 | |
| Democratic | Albert Hofeld | 394,497 | 27.09 | |
*Write-in and minor candidate notes: In 1992, write-ins received 28 votes. In 1998, Raymond W. Stalker received 280 votes.
Khalid B. Scott, MSW, CADC, MISA I, LCWS, QMHP
