A Salute To The Diversity Of Today's Black Woman

Ebony, March, 1999

U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas)

She is many things to many people--a leader, a nurturer, a friend, a mother, an integral part of the dynamic forces that will help shape a new millennium. She is today's Black woman, a central figure in a changing world that benefits from her courage, ambition, inspiration, perseverance and her confidence. On the following pages is a small group of Sisters who are representative, in part, of the diversity that is today's Black woman.

JUDGING the fate of William Jefferson Clinton, the president of the United States, is a pretty heavy duty. Yes. But it is one that Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) can handle. She has spent most of her life breaking down barriers and creating paths for women who will journey in her trailblazing footsteps in the new millennium. She was molded by her strong family roots into a fighter-turned-phenomenal-political woman. If anyone can get the job done with expertise, fairness and savvy, she certainly can.

"[Voting whether or not to impeach the president of the United States] was one of the most sobering, chilling experiences that one might experience as a legislator," says Lee, one of five Blacks, and one of two Black females, who serve on the United States House Judiciary Committee that is authorized to oversee the impeachment process. "Many of us who have been on this committee have often said that short of a vote for war, this is one of the most important votes one would ever take as a member of the United States Congress."

This is a point in Lee's political career that she never thought she would live to see, and she says, emphatically, that she absolutely never imagined she would be faced with a challenge of this magnitude. Fortunately, she was born a survivor: She credits her aggressive ambition to her family and her undying belief that being a child of the Civil Rights Movement gives her a special role and destiny that her family helped to shape. The U.S. representative's eternal gratitude for heroes like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. instills the creed in her heart that "if [civil rights leaders] were going to sacrifice that I might have an opportunity, I was not going to throw it away.

"The atmosphere in which I grew up was filled with a never-say-never attitude," says Lee. "So there wasn't anything, despite growing up in the '50s and '60s and seeing discrimination, that I thought I could not do. Because the question was always asked, why not? Why couldn't you do it? So the obvious answer would be yes you can. You just need to try."

Being a product of the New York City school system also developed a strong and persistent attitude in the Congresswoman. And although her high school counselors did not encourage her as a young Black girl to pursue opportunities in higher education, this only made her more determined to succeed.

Lee became part of the first group of women to integrate Yale University, where she received her bachelor's degree with honors in political science. She went on to the University of Virginia School of Law, where she married her husband, Dr. Elwyn Lee, now vice president of student affairs and special assistant to the president of the University of Houston, and quickly moved up the ranks of her political career. In 1994, the Congresswoman was elected to serve the constituents of the 18th Congressional District of Houston, where her agenda includes obtaining affordable housing for senior citizens, making sure young people have an opportunity to go to college, ensuring that people have access to good health care, and promoting economic development, particularly for small businesses.

Before her election to Congress, Rep. Lee was the first African-American female at-large city council member in Houston, and she served as an associate municipal court judge for the City of Houston.

With such responsibilities and an undying desire to help the less fortunate, Lee hasn't had a chance to take what she calls "that ultimate vacation." Until then, she enjoys spending time with her husband, Dr. Lee; their 13-year-old son, Jason; and their daughter, Erica, 18, a student in the honors college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Never taking no for an answer certainly paid off for Lee. Suffice it to say that her legacy will encourage future leaders just as the legacy of Dr. King and other unsung heroes of the civil rights era encouraged her to reach the heights that she has achieved. "I want to be a change-maker," she says, "... to make a difference, open doors that have been slammed shut, tread upon ground that has not been trod upon and reach beyond myself and help someone else."

National President, YWCA Alexine Clement Jackson

WHEN Alexine Clement Jackson gives her time to worthy causes, it is more than just her civic duty--as a third-generation "YWCA woman," it a way of life. "In a way, I've kind of inherited this job," says Jackson, currently the national president of the YWCA of the U.S.A. When the YWCA operated separate chapters for Blacks and Whites, both of Jackson's grandmothers were active members. In addition, her mother was the first Black woman to serve on the integrated YWCA board in Durham, N.C.