<Tr> <Th> Children </Th> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Education </Th> <Td> University of Illinois, Urbana - Champaign University of Illinois, Chicago (BA) University of Chicago (JD) </Td> </Tr> <P> Carol Elizabeth Moseley Braun, also sometimes Moseley - Braun (born August 16, 1947), is an American diplomat, politician and lawyer who represented Illinois in the United States Senate from 1993 to 1999 . She was the first female African - American Senator, the first African - American U.S. Senator for the Democratic Party, the first woman to defeat an incumbent U.S. Senator in an election, and the first female Senator from Illinois . She was the only female U.S. Senator from Illinois until Tammy Duckworth who became the U.S. Senator from Illinois in January 2017 . From 1999 until 2001, she was the United States Ambassador to New Zealand . She was a candidate for the Democratic nomination during the 2004 U.S. presidential election . Following the public announcement by Richard M. Daley that he would not seek re-election, in November 2010, Braun 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 . </P> <P> 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 . Her father, Joseph J. Moseley, was a Chicago police officer and jail guard and her mother, Edna A. (Davie), was a medical technician in a hospital . Both 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 her teens, and she lived with her grandmother . She began her undergraduate studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana--Champaign, 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 . </P>

Who was the first african american woman to serve in the senate