Gender & Race in the United States Senate

This graphic was created using data from senate.gov, which provides an updated list of every American who has served in the U.S. Senate. Each member is listed in the order in which they were elected, and they are each assigned a number that reflects their rank within the Senate. This graphic is a visual representation of that list.

Of the 1,994 Americans who have served in the U.S. Senate…

58 are women
11 are Black
11 are Latino/Latina
8 are Asian American
3 are Native American
And 1,909 are white men

“Firsts”

In addition to a representation of each senator, I also chose to highlight “firsts;” the men and women whose membership was, at the time, unprecedented. Through this process, I learned a bit of history about each of those 9 individuals.

The first Black man to be elected to the Senate, Hiram Revels, served for one year when the Mississippi state legislature elected him to fill a vacancy during Reconstruction. In fact, more than one “first” was elected or appointed simply to fill a vacancy left by a white man who had retired or passed away.

Similarly, the first woman to be appointed to the Senate, Rebecca Felton, was appointed by the Governor of Georgia to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Thomas E. Watson. She was sworn in on November 21, 1922 and served for just twenty-four hours while the Senate was in session.

Because Felton’s stint as a senator was very short and her position was merely an “appointment,” I also chose to highlight the second woman to serve in the Senate. Hattie Caraway was appointed to fill a vacancy left by the death of her husband in 1931. However, the following year, Caraway chose to run for the open Senate seat. She became the first woman elected – not appointed – to the Senate.

The Process

I couldn’t find any datasets that included members’ names, rank, gender, and race. To compile that information, I had to reference several different lists, all of which are available on senate.gov. Then, I created a spreadsheet numbered 1 - 1,994 and highlighted the 85 members who are not white men. This spreadsheet gave me a lot of confidence in the accuracy of my presentation. While I sometimes have a tendency to dive right into the design, I’m glad I didn’t skip this step.