Cynthia Ann McKinney was born in Atlanta on March 17, 1955. In 1978, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations from the University of Southern California and then earned a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Tufts University.
In 1988, she and her father became the first father daughter team in the Georgian State House and then the first African American to be elected Congresswoman from Georgia in 1992, a position she held until 2002.
McKinney has one son.