Sheila Jackson-Lee

Sheila Jackson-Lee, born in 1950, Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from Texas (1995- ). Jackson-Lee was born in Jamaica, New York. She received a bachelor’s degree in political science from Yale University in 1972 and a law degree from the University of Virginia in 1975. She was an attorney in Houston, Texas, from 1975 to 1987. She served as a Houston municipal court judge from 1987 to 1989 and sat on the Houston City Council from 1990 to 1995. In 1994 she ran for the U.S. Congress in the 18th Congressional District of Texas and won with over 70 percent of the vote.

The 18th District includes many of the poorest parts of Houston. Federal judges ordered that the district be redrawn in 1995 because the 1990 redistricting had given the district too large a proportion of low-income minority voters. Office buildings and hotels in downtown Houston and the Texas Medical Center are major employers.