Long-standing US representative Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, who helped lead federal efforts to protect women from domestic violence and recognise Juneteenth as a national holiday, has died aged 74.
Ms Jackson Lee, who had pancreatic cancer, died in Houston on Friday night with her family around her, her chief of staff confirmed.
The Democrat had represented her Houston-based district and America’s fourth-largest city since 1995. She had previously had breast cancer and announced the pancreatic cancer diagnosis on June 2nd.
At the time, Ms Jackson Lee said: “The road ahead will not be easy, but I stand in faith that God will strengthen me.”
Bishop James Dixon, a friend in Houston who visited Jackson Lee earlier this week, said he will remember her as a fighter.
“She was just a rare, rare jewel of a person who relentlessly gave everything she had to make sure others had what they needed. That was Sheila,” he said.
Ms Jackson Lee had just been elected to the Houston district once represented by Barbara Jordan, the first black woman elected to congress from a Southern state since Reconstruction, when she was immediately placed on the high-profile house judiciary committee in 1995.
“They just saw me, I guess through my profile, through Barbara Jordan’s work,” Ms Jackson Lee told the Houston Chronicle in 2022. “I thought it was an honour because they assumed I was going to be the person they needed.”
Ms Jackson Lee quickly established herself as 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.
Ms Jackson Lee was also among the lead legislators behind the effort in 2021 to have Juneteenth recognised as the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King, Jr Day was established in 1986.
The holiday marks the day in 1865 (June 19) that the last enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, finally learned of their freedom.
A native of Queens, New York, Jackson Lee graduated from Yale and earned her law degree at the University of Virginia. She was a judge in Houston before she was elected to Houston City Council in 1989, then ran for Congress in 1994. She was an advocate for gay rights and an early opponent of the Iraq War in 2003.
Top congressional Democrats reacted quickly to the news, praising her commitment and work ethic.
James Clyburn of South Carolina called her “a tenacious advocate for civil rights and a tireless fighter, improving the lives of her constituents”.
Jamie Raskin of Maryland said he had never known a harder-working legislators than Ms Jackson Lee, saying she “studied every bill and every amendment with exactitude and then told Texas and America exactly where she stood”.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California cited Ms Jackson Lee’s “relentless determination” in getting Juneteenth declared a national holiday.
“As a powerful voice in the Congress for our Constitution and human rights, she fought tirelessly to advance fairness, equity and justice for all,” she said.
Republican Texas governor Greg Abbott said he and his wife Cecilia will always remember Ms Jackson Lee, calling her a “tireless advocate for the people of Houston”.
He said: “Her legacy of public service and dedication to Texas will live on.”
