Barbara Lee
U.S. Representative for California
Barbara Jean Lee was born in July 1946 in El Paso, Texas. She earned an undergraduate degree from Mills College in Oakland, California, and received an MSW from the University of California, Berkeley. She served as a staff member for a U.S. Representative for California, and was later elected to the California State Assembly, where she served six years until her election to the California Senate, where she served two years.
She has been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since April 1998. She is a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and the current whip and former co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
She married Pastor Clyde Oden, Jr. on New Year’s Eve 2019. She is the mother of two children. She is a Baptist.
In the News…
Representative Barbara Lee of California was joined by Representative Ayanna Presley of Massachusetts and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts to introduce legislation titled “The Anti-Racism in Public Health Act.” If passed, the proposal introduced in both chambers would establish two new wings of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — the National Center for Anti-Racism and the Law Enforcement Violence Prevention Program within the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the federal agency.
“It is time we start treating structural racism like we would treat any other public health problem or disease: investing in research into its symptoms and causes and finding ways to mitigate its effects,” Warren said. “My bill with Representatives Lee and Pressley is a first step to create anti-racist federal health policy that studies and addresses disparities in health outcomes at their roots.”
Both Lee and Presley said the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the public health inequities in communities of color. Black and Latino Americans are both significantly more likely to contract and die from COVID-19 than white Americans.
Contact this Leader…
Did you pray for Representative Lee today? You can let her know at:
The Honorable Barbara Lee
U.S. Representative for California
2470 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
