Carrie Meek

Carrie Mae Meek (née Pittman; April 29, 1926 – November 28, 2021) was the United States representative for Florida's 17th congressional district, from 1993 to 2003.

[3] At that time, African Americans were not allowed to be admitted to graduate schools in Florida, so Meek enrolled in the University of Michigan and received her master of science degree in 1948.

[6] When state representative Gwen Cherry, Florida's first woman African American legislator, died in a car crash in 1979,[7][8] Meek decided to run in the special election to succeed her.

[5] In 1992, a court-ordered congressional redistricting plan drew three districts with a substantial African American population that were designed to elect black candidates of choice to comply with the federal Voting Rights Act.

Along with Corrine Brown and Alcee Hastings, Meek became the first black member of Congress from Florida since Post-Civil War Reconstruction Era.

[11] Upon taking office, Meek faced the task of helping her district recover from Hurricane Andrew's devastation.

Her efforts as the only freshman Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee helped to provide $100 million in federal assistance to rebuild Dade County.

[6] Meek believed that her district was undercounted in the 1990 Census and that the votes of her constituents were not represented correctly in the 2000 presidential election.

[10] Meek and other members of the U.S. House of Representatives objected to the 25 electoral votes from Florida that George W. Bush narrowly won after a contentious recount.

[16] After her retirement from politics, she spent much of her time running the Carrie Meek Foundation, which she had founded in 2001 to provide resources and opportunities for those living in her Miami-Dade community.

Representative Carrie Meek in the Florida House chamber in 1980, in this photograph, Meek is shown wearing a t-shirt that reads "A woman's place is in the House and the Senate "