(Reuters) -U.S. Consultant Sheila Jackson Lee, a powerful progressive voice within the Democratic Social gathering who was outspoken on African-American and girls’s rights, has died, her household posted on X late on Friday.
Jackson Lee of Texas introduced final month she had pancreatic most cancers and was present process remedy. She was 74, in accordance with U.S. media.
“The highway forward won’t be straightforward, however I stand in religion that God will strengthen me,” she stated in asserting the prognosis.
“A fierce champion of the folks, she was affectionately and easily generally known as ‘Congresswoman’ by her constituents in recognition of her near-ubiquitous presence and repair to their each day lives for greater than 30 years,” her household stated within the assertion.
She was lively all through her profession in selling laws aimed toward addressing social justice, financial inequality and public well being considerations.
Jackson Lee, who represented elements of Houston, launched a laws within the Home of Representatives to make “Juneteenth” a federal vacation commemorating the top of the authorized enslavement of Black People.
The vacation marks the day in 1865 when a Union common knowledgeable a gaggle of enslaved folks in Texas that they’d been made free two years earlier by President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation throughout the Civil Warfare.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a conservative Republican, posted on X that his spouse “Cecilia and I’ll without end bear in mind Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.
“She was a proud Texan and a tireless advocate for the folks of Houston. Her legacy of public service and dedication to Texas will stay on,” Abbott stated.
Jackson Lee served on a number of Home committees, together with judiciary, homeland safety and funds.
