 The United States Senate has had a total of 12 black members, with the first being Hiram Rhodes Rebels, elected in 1870 during the Reconstruction era. Jim Crow and other disenfranchisement tactics led to a gap of nearly 90 years between the first and second U.S. black senators. In 1992, Carol Moseley Braun became the first black woman to serve in the U.S. Senate. I don't know, maybe this is just my day to get to talk about race. Maybe I'm just lucky like that today.