This is a historic week in Washington and all over America. Not only are we celebrating the one-year anniversary of President Barack Obama’s election; we’re taking our hats off to Carol Moseley Braun, who is celebrating her anniversary today as the first black woman and black Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992.

Sen. Braun’s made history in several ways: She’s also the first woman to defeat an incumbent senator in an election and the first and only female senator for the state of Illinois.

Moseley Braun was a child of Chi-Town, a product of the city’s public schools. She was taught the value of hard work early on. It was by  working in the post office and a grocery store that Moseley Braun financed her way through the University of Chicago, graduating with honors.

She really had no choice but to go into politics; her father was a police officer and activist and her mother was a medical technician. She was from a family of people who served others.

Recognizing the need for a focus on education, it was Moseley Braun’s priority as she began her term in office. She had been the chief sponsor of the Urban School Improvement Act, which created parent councils at every school in Chicago and provided higher salaries for teachers and professors. This was only the beginning of her contribution toward race relations and fair education in America.

She served from 1993 to 1999.

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