HOUSTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will deliver a eulogy for U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee at a North Houston church on Thursday as days of 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 became one of Congress’ most prominent Black women during nearly three decades representing her Texas district. She helped lead federal efforts to protect women from domestic violence and recognize Juneteenth as a national holiday.
Jackson Lee was 74 when she died on July 19 after being treated for pancreatic cancer. Harris, a former California senator, said in a statement after her death that she was “one of our nation’s fiercest, smartest, and most strategic leaders in the way she thought about how to make progress happen.”
Services for Jackson Lee began on Monday when hundreds of people paid their respects to Jackson Lee as her body lay in state in a flag-draped coffin inside Houston’s City Hall. President Joe Biden was one of the visitors, placing a bouquet of flowers near her casket and visiting with Jackson Lee’s family.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Jackson Lee was remembered at viewings at two different churches.
The Democrat had 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.
After first being elected, Jackson Lee quickly 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 routinely won reelection to Congress with ease. She unsuccessfully ran to be Houston’s mayor last year.
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