US Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, a strong progressive voice in the Democratic Party who was outspoken on African-American and women’s rights, has died, her family posted, on X late on Friday.
Jackson Lee of Texas announced last month she had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was undergoing treatment. She was 74, according to US media.
“A fierce champion of the people, she was affectionately and simply known as ‘Congresswoman’ by her constituents in recognition of her near-ubiquitous presence and service to their daily lives for more than 30 years,” her family said in the statement.
Representative for portions of Houston, Jackson Lee, proposed legislation in the House of Representatives to declare “Juneteenth” a federal holiday honoring the abolition of Black Americans’ legal slavery.
On this day in 1865, a Union general told a gathering of slaves in Texas that they had been freed two years previously by President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War. This event is commemorated as a national holiday.
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