When Mark Kirk is sworn in this afternoon, the U.S. Senate will once again have no African-Americans. Since Reconstruction, there have only been four black senators. Three of them -- Carol Moseley Braun, Barack Obama and Roland Burris -- have held the seat that Kirk is about to occupy. For reasons that go back more than a century, all the way to the First Great Migration from the South, Illinois has led the nation in black political empowerment. We’ve elected more black statewide officials than anyone else. We produced the first black president. And it was a matter of pride...
