Trailblazer: Perseverance in Life and Politics

A memoir from Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun detailing her remarkable childhood and political career on the Hill, including her tenure as the first Black female US senator

The first Black woman ever elected to the Senate. The first woman to represent the state of Illinois. The first Black woman to serve as a US ambassador to New Zealand. These are just a few of the “firsts” that Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun can lay claim to since entering politics in the 1970s. Since then, the self-professed “Black girl from the south side of Chicago” has been shattering ceilings and making history.

Yet her journey to Congress and to international renown was not an easy one, rife with obstacles, controversies, and lessons learned. In Trailblazer, Moseley Braun shares the full story of her extraordinary life in a fascinating narrative filled with poignant, powerful, and sometimes funny stories. Born into a family with a history of civil rights activism and military service dating back to the Civil War, Moseley Braun talks about her childhood in racially segregated Chicago to the present, including marching with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., running for president as the lone woman in a field of men, and fostering surprising friendships throughout her storied career, from Joe Biden to Hillary Clinton.

Trailblazer is a story of perseverance, a moving narrative from a once-in-a-generation icon, steeped in the civic and civil rights history of our nation. Carol Moseley Braun offers readers a measure of hope and an optimistic letter to future generations on the work we have done and have yet to do to ensure that our country lives up to the promise of liberty and justice for all.