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Warnock Makes History as 1st Black Elected to US Senate from Georgia

Dora Mekouar

   The Rev. Raphael Warnock, a pastor at the same Atlanta church where
   civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. once preached, is the first
   Black person ever elected to the U.S. Senate from the state of Georgia.

   Warnock, 51, who defeated incumbent Republican Kelly Loeffler in
   Tuesday's runoff election, is also the first Black Democrat to
   represent a Southern state in the Senate.

   "I stand before you as a man who knows that the improbable journey that
   led me to this place in this historic moment in America could only
   happen here," Warnock said in his virtual acceptance speech. "We were
   told that we couldn't win this election. But tonight, we proved that
   with hope, hard work and the people by our side, anything is possible."

   The Savannah native grew up in publicly supported housing for
   low-income families. A graduate of Morehouse College, a private
   historically Black men's liberal arts college in Atlanta, Warnock
   earned a doctor of philosophy degree from Union Theological Seminary, a
   school affiliated with Columbia University. He has spent the past 15
   years as senior pastor of Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church, the
   spiritual home of King.

   'Historic'

   "Georgia is a state that has a long history of racist politics, dating
   back well into the 19th century, and for an African American man to be
   elected to the United States Senate from Georgia is a historic moment,"
   said James Grossman, executive director of the American Historical
   Association.

   More than 4 million Georgians voted in Tuesday's runoff with the
   state's two Senate seats at stake and majority control of the U.S.
   Senate hanging in the balance.

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