The total number of blacks elected to the senate since Reconstruction = 3
(Obama is currently the only black in the senate)
Barack Obama D-IL (2005-present)
Carol Moseley-Braun D-IL (1993-1999)
Edward W. Brook R-MA (1967-1979)
*The other two men, Hiram Revels and Bruce K. Blanche represented Mississippi during Reconstruction. "The South" hasn't elected a black senator since 1875.
The total number of black governors since Reconstruction = 1
Those numbers are no accident. You likely won't have many black senatorial/gubernatorial candidates in Montana or South Dakota...but to think that Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi (in modern times) etc. haven't had a black senator.....it has to make you think a little. Harold didn't have much of a chance....20 years from now...maybe 30...certainly in our lifetimes....it will be ok....but the last of "the old guard" hasn't died off just yet.