Unable to block the measure, black senators agreed to the plan, saying it was the best they could hope for.

He will become only the third black senator since Reconstruction.

There have been only five black senators, and none from New York.

Six of the seven black senators voted for the measure; one did not vote.

Mr. Kirk, if elected, would be the first black senator from Texas.

He remains the only black senator ever to win re-election.

He is the first black senator since 1881.

Well, there's no black senator from Georgia or anyplace else down there.

Until 2013, there have been only six black senators since the caucus's founding.

Mr. Ravenel does not consider himself a racist and made sure to tell me he shares an office with "a very fine black senator."