By Andrew Hay
(Reuters) – Vice President Kamala Harris will pay tribute to former U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee at her funeral on Thursday, eulogizing a prominent voice on African American and women’s rights within the Democratic Party.
Jackson Lee announced in June she had pancreatic cancer and was undergoing treatment. The Texas lawmaker died on July 19, aged 74.
Harris will be the highest ranking U.S. official at Jackson Lee’s Houston funeral, acting as consoler in chief for the 15-term representative who promoted legislation addressing social justice, economic inequality and public health.
Harris, who is poised to become the Democratic presidential nominee after President Joe Biden quit the race last month, was a friend of Jackson Lee.
She worked with the congresswoman on a bill to recognize “Juneteenth” as a federal holiday commemorating the end of the legal enslavement of Black Americans.
The two were also members of Alpha Kappa Alpha, a historically African American sorority for female students at U.S. universities and colleges.
The service at Fallbrook Church in Houston is also expected to include comments by Rev. Al Sharpton, Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries, former U.S. President Bill Clinton and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
A fighter for criminal justice reforms, Jackson Lee was a vocal proponent of police reform in the face of congressional roadblocks after the 2020 police killing of George Floyd, a Black man whose death sparked nationwide protests.
Harris, a former prosecutor, also fought for criminal justice as a U.S. senator.
Harris last year spoke at the funeral of Tyre Nichols, 29, a black man fatally injured by police in Memphis, Tennessee. At a 2022 service in Buffalo, New York she eulogized ten African Americans killed in a shooting at a grocery store.
Harris’ rival, Republican Donald Trump, on Wednesday falsely suggested to the country’s largest annual gathering of Black journalists that Harris had previously downplayed her Black heritage. Harris, who is of Indian and Jamaican heritage, has long identified as both Black and Asian.
(Reporting By Andrew Hay, editing by Deepa Babington)
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