In 1870, the first black senator, Hiram Revels, took his seat in the US Senate in 1870 amid hope that non-white citizens would take their place as full participants in the reconstructed union of states. Revels took the Mississippi seat of Jefferson Davis, vacant when he left to become President of the Confederacy. Although challenged over whether he had the right to the seat, Revels opposed punishing former rebels. The second black Senator, Blanche Bruce, was also selected by the Mississippi legislature to represent the state. In 1913, Senators began to be elected by popular vote with the 17th amendment. By then, efforts to disenfranchise black people were well underway. More than 50 years passed before the third black man, Edward William Brooke III, took a Senate seat, from the Northern state of Massachusetts.

Tim Scott, currently serving in the Senate, is only the third black Senator from a southern state, South Carolina. A Republican, he is a member of the party historically most supportive of rights for people of color.