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| Carrie Meek greets members of the FAMU women's basketball team in her office in the US Capitol. |
Former U.S. Rep. Carrie Pittman Davis Meek, the first Black person to represent Florida in Congress since the post-Civil War Reconstruction and a fierce advocate for FAMU, and Florida’s Black communities, Haitian immigrants and the working poor, died Sunday at her home in Miami after a long illness. She was 95.
The granddaughter of slaves, Meek, a Tallahassee native, and graduate of both FAMU High and FAMU, served as a Florida state representative, state senator and later became a congresswoman in 1992 at the age of 66. She won the nomination for the Democratic Party and ran unopposed in the general election, and was sworn in early.
Alcee Hastings and Corrine Brown joined Meek in January 1993 as the first Black Floridians to serve in Congress since 1876 as the state’s districts had been redrawn by the federal courts in accordance with the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
While a state Senator Meek, championed the renovation and expansion of the Coleman Library at FAMU, and the construction of a new President’s residence on campus.
While she was elected to represented Miami-Dade County in Congress, she never forgot about her alma mater FAMU. In Congress she used her great influence to create two new USDA funded programs at FAMU -- the Center for Biological Controls and the Center for Water Resources. In addition, she secured funding for the renovation and expansion of the Carnegie Library which became the Meek-Eaton Black Archives Research Center and Museum.
Meek was a standout student athlete at FAMU lettering in track and field women’s basketball. After graduating from FAMU in 1946, Meek was not allowed to pursue a graduate degree in the state of Florida, and the state paid her tuition to attend the University of Michigan where she earned a Masters in Health and Physical Education in 1948.
The granddaughter of slaves, Meek, a Tallahassee native, and graduate of both FAMU High and FAMU, served as a Florida state representative, state senator and later became a congresswoman in 1992 at the age of 66. She won the nomination for the Democratic Party and ran unopposed in the general election, and was sworn in early.
Alcee Hastings and Corrine Brown joined Meek in January 1993 as the first Black Floridians to serve in Congress since 1876 as the state’s districts had been redrawn by the federal courts in accordance with the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said about Meek, “Officially and personally, it was a great honor to know, serve with and share a friendship with Carrie Meek. On the Appropriations Committee where we both served, she was a force, bringing to bear the special power of her soft accent and strong will for her community and country. Indeed, she was formidable in meeting the needs of her community, including by advocating for Haitian immigrants and refugees and creating economic opportunities for working families in her district."
“As a lifelong educator, public service for Carrie Meek was about children, community and the future. 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.
“The great Congressman John Lewis once said of Congresswoman Meek, ‘We see showboats and we see tugboats. She’s a tugboat,’ Pelosi recalled.