Congresswoman
Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) didn’t lose many
battles, but she succumbed to pancreatic
cancer on July 19. She tackled the disease
like she tackled so many other challenges,
working with her doctors on a treatment plan,
making the most of the time that she had, and
speaking with optimism about the future. Even
though she had been ill, took to the streets
to provide food, baby formula, and other
supplies in the wake of Hurricane Beryl. And
until the end, she worked. I know a journalist
who had an appointment set up with her a few
days after her death. Her office called
Wednesday before her Thursday death to cancel.
What optimism to think that, even battling a
deadly disease, she might still want to do an
interview. What faith, resilience, focus to
keep working through it all.
Sheila said she wanted to be an “Energizer Bunny” for
Houston, and indeed she was. She was also an
Energizer Bunny for social and economic
justice. The congresswoman was able to get
federal appropriations for her beloved 18th
Congressional District because she worked
tirelessly to get things done. She was
especially effective around race matters,
successfully lobbying President Biden to make
Juneteenth, the day when enslaved Black Texans
learned that they were free, a national
holiday. She also took HR40, the Congressional
bill that would study reparations and develop
remedies for the economic injustice African
American people experienced because of
enslavement and its aftermath, to the point
that more than two hundred members of Congress
cosponsored it. President Biden should sign an
executive order to implement HR 40, especially
now, in tribute to our fallen Congresswoman.
It would be fitting recognition to a sister
who took the baton that Congressman John
Conyers (D-MI) passed to her and ran with it.
Congresswoman
Sheila Jackson Lee was selected by Congressman
Conyers to shepherd the legislation he
introduced in every congressional session
since 1989. She never failed to acknowledge
his effort and made herself available to
reparations activists. She was especially
helpful to the National African American
Reparations Commission (NAARC), which was
created in 2015, partly to support HR 40.
(Full disclosure – I am a member of NAARC).
She traveled to many of our town hall meetings
that took place all over the country. Always a
forceful and fiery speaker, she made a solid
case for reparations. From her perch on the
Judiciary Committee, she convened a hearing on
June 19, 2019, the first time Congress held
such a hearing. (Again, full disclosure, I was
among those testifying at that hearing).
Reparations and
racial justice weren’t the only things that
impassioned the Texas Congresswoman. She was
passionate about children and their
opportunities, supporting Head Start,
children’s health, and women’s rights. She
fought to reauthorize the Violence Against
Women Act, which first passed in 1994, but
subsequently lapsed. She was successful in
getting it expanded and reauthorized. She
supported the CROWN Act, legislation that
prevents discrimination against people because
of their natural hair styles and spoke out
when a young Texas man was put out of school
because of the length of his dreads.
It seems that no
issue was too big or too small for Sheila. Her
office provided excellent constituent
services, but beyond services, she offered the
personal touch, attending weddings and
funerals and neighborhood gatherings. She
shone on the big stage, on the Floor of
Congress, in her Africa work, in the world.
She worked hard, she shone brightly, she cared
for our nation, for Black people, for justice.
Sheila was the
consummate orator. Not only was she a powerful
and well-prepared speaker, she was also an
amazing extemporaneous speaker. I’ve seen her
expound with no notes and little notice. I
mean she owned the mike as a master of the
spoken word.
And Sheila Jackson Lee was my friend. I was blessed to
have a personal relationship with the fierce,
fiery, forceful, fantastic and, yes,
fashionable fighter. The sister could rock
some African attire! She stood on strong
shoulders – that 18th district had previously been represented by the esteemed
Barbara Jordan and the impactful Mickey
Leland. She once told a reporter she had both
of her predecessors “in her soul,” modeling
her work after theirs. Now, she is in our
soul, that Energizer Bunny for Justice. Her
memory is both a blessing and an inspiration.
