(Reuters) -U.S. Consultant Sheila Jackson Lee, a powerful progressive voice within the Democratic Social gathering who was outspoken on African-American and ladies’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 keeping with U.S. media.
“The street forward is not going to 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 energetic all through her profession in selling laws geared toward addressing social justice, financial inequality and public well being issues.
Jackson Lee, who represented components of Houston, launched a laws within the Home of Representatives to make “Juneteenth” a federal vacation commemorating the tip of the authorized enslavement of Black Individuals.
The vacation marks the day in 1865 when a Union common knowledgeable a gaggle of enslaved folks in Texas that that they had been made free two years earlier by President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation through the Civil Struggle.
Jackson Lee served on a number of Home committees, together with judiciary, homeland safety and finances.