Hosted by U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) in honor of Black History Month, the discussion, moderated by U.S. Senate Chaplain Barry Black, featured current and former black senators including Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and former Senators Carol Moseley Braun (D-Ill.), Roland Burris (D-Ill.) and William “Mo” Cowan (D-Mass.).

The commencement of the 113th Congress in January marked the first time that two black senators have served concurrently in the Senate. Since the election of Hiram Revels of Mississippi in 1870, only nine African-Americans have served in the Senate including President Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

“I want to thank Senator Scott for bringing us all together,” Booker said. “I am looking at he and I, who are focused on empowering people’s lives, to be the change we really want to see in the entire Senate.”

The event was divided into two parts — the former a discussion moderated by Black focusing on the senators’ journeys to the Senate and the latter a question and answer session with audience members.

Sen. Scott, who assumed office in January 2013, stressed the importance of inspiring the next generation to pursue their goals.

“One of the reasons why I thought this was an important opportunity for us to gather today is because there are so many young kids who want to be here,” he said.

Raised in poverty, Scott came from a single-parent household, where his mother worked 16 hour days.

“No matter where you come from, no matter how you started, no matter how difficult life is, whether you have a two-parent household or a single-parent household like I did, but in America, all things are possible,” Scott said.

Scott pointed to his mother, who raised him and his brother, as well as to his mentor, John Moniz, an Air Force veteran and owner of Scott’s local Chick-fil-A where he worked as a teenager, as a source of encouragement throughout his life.

“One of the lessons that [Moniz] left me with was that, if you want to make a difference in this world, start with yourself,” Scott said. “And number two, get into a place where you can impact lives of other people in your community.”

Amid deep factions and partisanship within today’s Congress, an underlying theme of nonpartisanship ran throughout the day’s event.

Braun voiced her concerns for the factionalization that she had seen in Congress, not only for her own generation but future ones as well.

“This is another step we can take in suggesting to our colleagues that it’s time to focus in on how our country fails, how we build on our successes, how we move forward in a way that will honor our ancestors, as well as do justice by our children and the generations to follow,” Braun said.

Braun went on to describe the racism and sexism she encountered as the first and only African American female in the Senate — biases that, the senator says, still exist today.

“I was once asked ‘Which was worse,’ and my response to that is if someone’s foot is on your neck, it almost doesn’t matter why it’s there,” Braun said.

Cowan noted that the presence of Scott, the sole Republican senator on the panel, exemplified adversity of perspectives.

“Even though only one of us is on the other side of the aisle, I think we represent a range of political interests and view points,” Cowan said. “I think that’s good for the African-American community to see.”

He urged Americans to honor the struggle of the past generation by inspiring future generations and encouraging them to succeed.

“My prayer is that my generation, especially, can look at people on this stage who fought battles that I will never fight, never see, in order to give us these opportunities and privileges,” Booker said. “That we prove worthy of those privileges that we have not by paying anything back, but by paying it forward.”

In an interview with The Hoya after the event, Scott argued that black people have made a lot of progress in the Senate over the years in combating racism.

“I think a good way to look at it is that in the first 150 years, we got four Senators and, in the last 20 years, we got five,” Scott said. “The fact of the matter is that our country continues to make leaps forward.”