MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
If Carol Moseley Braun's name comes up, the other word that has to come up is first. She was the first African American woman elected to the U.S. Senate. She was also the first female senator from Illinois and the first Black Democrat elected to the Senate. And while all those titles assured her place in the history books, they didn't assure an easy time in the job, and they certainly don't tell the story of the highs and the high cost of being the first. So, Carol Moseley Braun is doing that herself in her new memoir titled "Trailblazer: Perseverance In Life And Politics." And she's with us now to tell us more about it. Good morning, Ambassador. Thank you so much for joining us.
CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN: Well, I'm so delighted to be with you. Good to talk with you again.
MARTIN: And it's Ambassador Moseley Braun because, in addition to having been a U.S. senator and a number of other offices in politics, you were also U.S. ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. So you've been out of public life for a while. What made you want to tell your story now? Was there any particular thing pushing you?
MOSELEY BRAUN: You know, my little grandbaby - he's 7 now - he came and said, Grandma Carol, are you famous? And I tried to explain it to him, but, you know, it's too many words, and he was only 6 at the time. So I said, you know what? I think that now is the time.
MARTIN: Why did you decide to get into elected office to begin with? Will you tell that story?
MOSELEY BRAUN: I'd been assisting the United States attorney, and I had my son. And so I was here with him. I was just doing - being a homemaker, which was fine. I really enjoyed it. But there were people in the neighborhood who were protesting the removal of the bobolinks from Jackson Park. And I joined them one day. And the bobolinks are these little rice birds, originally from South Carolina, but somehow or another, they wound up here in Chicago, OK? And so some of the people with whom I was marching said, we think you should run for state representative. Our state representative is retiring. So at first, I demurred and wouldn't do it. But then, after I got challenged, there was - there's a pundit here in Chicago who said, don't run. You can't possibly win. The Blacks won't vote for you 'cause you're not part of the Chicago machine. The whites won't vote for you 'cause you're Black, and nobody's going to vote for you 'cause you're a woman. So...
(LAUGHTER)
MOSELEY BRAUN: And so that was my inspiration. That's what did it.
MARTIN: And nobody thought you could win, except you.
MOSELEY BRAUN: Nobody thought I could win. And she lost all of her mind. Yeah.
MARTIN: But one of the things that was also interesting in the book is that so many of the jobs that you had, there was a point at which nobody believed it was - you actually had that job. I mean, you tell the story...
MOSELEY BRAUN: Right.
MARTIN: ...About, like, being an assistant U.S. attorney and coming home from one of those cold Chicago winters, trying to get home, and you're trying to hail a taxi. This is pre-Uber, of course.
MOSELEY BRAUN: Yep.
MARTIN: And this police officer keeps riding by you, saying, what was he saying? Get off that corner.
MOSELEY BRAUN: Give up that corner. Give up that corner. Yeah.
MARTIN: Give up that corner. And he thought you were...
MOSELEY BRAUN: A hooker.
MARTIN: Because why? Why else would a Black woman dressed up...
MOSELEY BRAUN: 'Cause I was a Black woman standing on the corner in downtown Chicago.
MARTIN: And then you talked about the - your first day at the Senate, when you tried to get to your office, there was a Capitol police officer who...
MOSELEY BRAUN: Wouldn't let me in.
MARTIN: Wouldn't let you in.
MOSELEY BRAUN: Exactly. Well, the guy, you know, there are always two Capitol police standing on the doors to the Senate. The first guy, he said, you can't go in there. I said - I looked at him, like, quizzically, like, why? Why can't I? Then the other guy piped in and said, oh, she's the new senator from Illinois. And so that backed his colleague off.
MARTIN: I don't want people to think that the entire memoir is just filled with, like, these insults directed at you, although there were many, like, for example, the senator who would sing "Dixie" in your presence, and so forth.
MOSELEY BRAUN: Right.
MARTIN: So there's that and - but there were some structural issues that you also pointed out that made your job more difficult than for other people, like, for example, the amount of mail that you got. Could you talk about that?
MOSELEY BRAUN: The mail was really a challenge because there was so much of it. I mean, they gave me a room in the basement of the Capitol that was filled with these duffel bags full of mail. There was no way I could possibly do all of that by myself. And so I went to the leadership, and I asked for assignment of some help, and one guy said to me, well, Ted Kennedy gets a lot of mail, and, you know, he handles it. I'm thinking - I said, you're telling me I've got to function like Ted Kennedy does? I was too outdone.
MARTIN: But they never gave you additional staff just to deal with the mail?
MOSELEY BRAUN: No, they did not.
MARTIN: And do you think that that played some role over the course of your tenure, the kind of angst that sometimes built up around you, that people felt that you weren't doing the job?
MOSELEY BRAUN: It might have. It might have. But I - you know, again, you can't make everybody happy. But if you do the job, then people can't take potshots at you.
MARTIN: Well, they did, though.
MOSELEY BRAUN: Yeah, they did.
MARTIN: Why do you think you served only one term?
MOSELEY BRAUN: Because of that. You know, there was such expectations, and people expected me to come to every chicken fry in the state. And I couldn't do it. You know, I did as much as I could, but I couldn't do all of them.
MARTIN: Do you think that's why? I mean, you think that at the end of the day, the expectations of you are just greater than you could, as one person, fulfill?
MOSELEY BRAUN: That's part of it, but I think it's also what standard you're being held to. Again, I was kind of the duck-billed platypus of the Senate (laughter) in the sense that I was not only a woman, but I was Black, too, and I am Black, too. And so you put those things together, and what you have is a set of expectations that border on the unreasonable, that border on the trailblazing, the groundbreaking, if you will. And so I did my very best to live up to those expectations, but it was not always possible.
MARTIN: Is there anything you wish you'd done differently?
MOSELEY BRAUN: Well, not really. You know, I did the best job I could while I was planted. I really did. And I still am. I mean, I'm not dead yet. It's like I spoke in high school, at a grammar school, rather, and the school was named after me. And one little boy said, hey, there goes Carol Moseley Braun. And his little friend turned around and said, you mean she's not dead yet?
(LAUGHTER)
MOSELEY BRAUN: No, she's not dead yet. So I'm still here. So while I'm still here and able to tell the story, that's why the book made sense to do.
MARTIN: Well, one of the things about being first is it often makes things easier for people who are next, right?
MOSELEY BRAUN: Follow, yes.
MARTIN: The second and the third and the fourth. Is there something in particular that you think made it easier for them by the fact that you went first?
MOSELEY BRAUN: Well, I hope the fact that I deflected all of the brickbats that I don't think anybody is going to be held to the same kind of standard I was being held to in terms of, you know, production. I hope that that has really provided a roadmap to people who come after us. Don't get distracted with all the noise around you because there will be lots of noise around you. But if you don't let that distract you and you just keep focusing on what the people elected you to do, you'll be fine.
MARTIN: That is Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun. She's the author of "Trailblazer: Perseverance In Life And Politics." Ambassador Moseley Braun, thank you so much for talking with us.
MOSELEY BRAUN: I'm so happy to talk to you again, Michel.
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