Carol Moseley Braun

Carol Moseley Braun on the Confederate flag insignia, July 22, 1993 Jesse Helms had offered an amendment renewing a federal design patent for the United Daughters of the Confederacy insignia, which featured a Confederate flag, and the Senate's first vote went his way when her motion to table it failed. Moseley Braun, seven months into her first term, took the floor to say "this vote is about race" and that the Senate should not approve that flag, threatening to filibuster until the room froze over. After hours of debate the Senate voted again, and enough senators reversed themselves, 27 by one contemporary count, that the renewal was rejected. Few modern cases show a floor speech moving votes so plainly, on the record and in one debate.