HOUSTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris is delivering a eulogy Thursday for U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee at a Houston-area church as memorials for the longtime Democratic lawmaker draw to a close.
Harris is poised to be the first Black woman to be a major party’s presidential candidate, and Jackson Lee was one of Congress’ most prominent Black women during nearly three decades representing Texas. Jackson Lee helped lead federal efforts to protect women from domestic violence and recognize Juneteenth as a national holiday.
Jackson Lee, 74, died July 19 after being treated for pancreatic cancer.
Harris, a former California senator, said in a statement afterward that Jackson Lee was “one of our nation’s fiercest, smartest, and most strategic leaders in the way she thought about how to make progress happen.”
At the service, former President Bill Clinton said Jackson Lee was on his “just say yes” list whenever she called him during his time in office. She “really believed that we are all created equal,” he said, emphasizing, “We are the longest lasting democracy in human history because we had enough people like Sheila Jackson Lee.”
Services for Jackson Lee began on Monday when hundreds of people paid their respects to her as her body lay in state in a flag-draped coffin inside Houston’s City Hall. President Joe Biden placed a bouquet of flowers near her casket and visited with Jackson Lee’s family.
Arva Howard, 72, who was among the hundreds to pay respects Thursday, said Jackson Lee cared deeply for people. “We always knew if we needed something solved, Sheila was the person to go to,” Howard said.
Before the service, Calandrian Simpson Kemp, 53, posed next to a large photo of Jackson Lee in the church’s foyer while holding up a photo of her 20-year-old son, George Kemp Jr., who died from gun violence in 2013. Simpson Kemp said Jackson Lee was a mentor in Simpson Kemp’s efforts to stop gun violence and enact common sense gun laws after her son’s death.
“When I think of Sheila and her legacy, I think about empowerment. I think about the power of one,” Simpson Kemp said. “She never let up for people. She left it all on the battlefield, and I think it’s up to us now to pick up the torch.”
Jackson Lee represented her Houston-based district and the nation’s fourth-largest city since 1995. She previously had breast cancer and announced the pancreatic cancer diagnosis on June 2.
Before being elected to Congress, Jackson Lee served on Houston’s city council from 1990 to 1994.
In Washington, Jackson Lee established herself as a fierce advocate for women and minorities and a leader for House Democrats on many social justice issues, from policing reform to reparations for descendants of enslaved people. She led the first rewrite of the Violence Against Women Act in nearly a decade, which included protections for Native American, transgender and immigrant women.
Jackson Lee unsuccessfully ran to be Houston’s mayor last year.
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