Former US Rep. Carrie Meek remembered as trailblazer
By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE // Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Carrie Meek, who died Sunday, is being remembered as a trailblazer, a descendent of a slave who became one of the first Black Floridians elected to Congress since Reconstruction. But the late Congressman John Lewis had another way of describing her.
“We see showboats and we see tugboats. She’s a tugboat. I never want to be on the side of issues against her,” Lewis said of Meek in a 1999 news article.
Politicians and public figures on Monday recalled Meek’s pioneering career, with many noting her devotion to working class families in her Miami district as well as her powerful oratory, in an outpouring of support after her death at 95 years old after a long illness.
“Throughout her decades of public service, she was a champion for opportunity and progress, including following her retirement, as she worked to ensure that every Floridian had a roof over his or her head and access to a quality education,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.
Meek was 66 when she won the 1992 Democratic congressional primary in her Miami-Dade County district, later winning the seat in an unopposed general election race. On her first day in Congress, Meek reflected that while her grandmother, a slave on a Georgia farm, could never have dreamed of such an accomplishment, her parents told her that anything was possible.
“They always said the day would come when we would be recognized for our character,” she told The Associated Press in an interview that day.
In Congress, she was a champion of affirmative action, economic opportunities for the poor and efforts to bolster democracy in and ease immigration restrictions on Haiti, the birthplace of many of her constituents. She was a member of the powerful Appropriations Committee and worked to secure $100 million in aid to rebuild Dade County as the area recovered from Hurricane Andrew.
