美联社
佛罗里达州众议员凯莉·米克在塔博山传教巴仪式上讲话时微笑..
佛罗里达州劳德代尔堡——凯莉·米克周日去世，她是一名奴隶的孙子，也是一名佃农的女儿，是重建以来第一批当选国会议员的佛罗里达黑人之一。她当时95岁。
米克的家人在一份声明中说，她在迈阿密的家中久病后去世。家属没有具体说明死因。
米克在许多人开始退休的年龄开始了她的国会生涯。当她在迈阿密戴德县轻松赢得1992年民主党国会初选时，她66岁。没有共和党人在大选中反对她。
阿尔西·黑斯廷斯和科林·布朗于1993年1月加入米克，成为自1876年以来第一批在国会任职的黑人佛罗里达人，因为该州的选区是由联邦法院根据1965年《投票权法案》重新划分的。
米克在国会的第一天，她思考道，虽然身为佐治亚州农场奴隶的祖母做梦也想不到会有这样的成就，但她的父母告诉她，一切皆有可能。
“他们总是说总有一天我们会因为我们的性格而得到认可，”她在当天接受美联社采访时表示。
在国会，米克支持平权行动、穷人的经济机会，以及支持海地民主和放松移民限制的努力，海地是她的许多选民的出生地。
她还以其自由主义观点、平易近人但有力的演讲和丰富多彩的共和党抨击而闻名。
“最后一个为我做了一些事情的共和党人是亚伯拉罕·林肯，”她告诉参加1996年芝加哥民主党大会的州代表团。
2000年，米克和她的儿子、前州警、州参议员肯德里克一起，在时任佛罗里达州州长杰布·布什的办公室静坐示威，抗议平权行动政策的终止。自从1948年在安阿伯的密歇根大学获得硕士学位以来，她一直支持这样的政策。当时，黑人没有被佛罗里达的研究生院录取。
米克在2002年决定不再寻求第六个任期。她的儿子肯德里克(Kendrick)成功赢得了她所在的民主党占多数的选区，在2010年竞选美国参议院失败之前，他曾在该选区任职四届。
离开国会后，凯莉·米克回到迈阿密，创建了一个致力于教育和住房问题的基金会。她也因一些商业交易而受到批评。
她为一个生物技术公园游说，这个公园是为迈阿密贫困的自由城社区规划的，但从未实现。县当局最终开始了刑事调查，该公园的开发商于2009年10月被捕，罪名是他从该项目中窃取了近100万美元。
国会记录显示，米克得到了报酬，而她的儿子为这个项目寻求数百万美元的联邦资金。米克说，她是作为顾问获得报酬的，母子俩都否认他们的努力有关联。
进入政界之前，米克在迈阿密戴德学院担任教师和行政人员。
她于1978年当选为佛罗里达州众议员，接替在车祸中丧生的黑人先锋议员格温·切里。自19世纪以来，她成为第一批非裔美国人和第一位在佛罗里达州参议院任职的黑人女性之一
1926年4月29日，凯莉·皮特曼在塔拉哈西为威利和凯莉·皮特曼所生，是12个孩子中最小的一个。她的父亲在附近的田地里做佃农，母亲从白人家庭收来衣物。
她于1946年毕业于佛罗里达州A&M大学，获得生物和体育学位。2007年，为了纪念她，这所大学将其建筑命名为黑人历史档案馆。她是德尔塔适马太塔女生联谊会的成员。
她接受了白求恩炊事员学院的一个教师职位，并成为该机构的第一位女篮球教练。1958年，她回到佛罗里达州的A&M，担任健康和体育教师。她一直担任这一职务，直到1961年。
1961年至1979年，米克在迈阿密戴德社区学院继续她的教学生涯，担任第一任黑人教授、副院长和副总统助理。
然后，她开始了她开创性的政治生涯，以民主党佛罗里达州众议院代表的身份代表佛罗里达州第17国会选区。
在国会，米克是一个强大的拨款委员会的成员，并努力确保1亿美元的援助，以重建戴德县，该地区从安德鲁飓风中恢复过来。
她于2002年退休，并将工作重心转移到她于2001年11月成立的凯莉·米克基金会，为迈阿密戴德社区提供急需的资源、机会和工作。米克领导着基金会的日常运作，直到2015年她因健康状况恶化而辞职。
米克由她的孩子露西娅·戴维斯-雷福德、希拉·戴维斯·基努和肯德里克·b·米克、七个孙子、五个曾孙以及多个侄女和侄子抚养长大。
葬礼安排悬而未决。
迈阿密戴德县市长丹妮尔·莱文·卡瓦在一份声明中称米克是“真正的开拓者”
莱文·卡瓦说:“她从来不害怕用自己的声音大声反对不平等，或者为被剥夺权利的人和弱势群体而战——她的崇高遗产将在未来几代人的时间里继续塑造我们的社区和国家。
Carrie Meek, pioneering Black former congresswoman, dies
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Carrie Meek, the grandchild of a slave and a sharecropper’s daughter who became one of the first Black Floridians elected to Congress since Reconstruction, died Sunday. She was 95.
Meek died at her home in Miami after a long illness, her family said in a statement. The family did not specify a cause of death.
Meek started her congressional career at an age when many people begin retirement. She was 66 when she easily won the 1992 Democratic congressional primary in her Miami-Dade County district. No Republican opposed her in the general election.
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.
On her first day in Congress, Meek reflected that while her grandmother, a slave on a Georgia farm, could never have dreamed of such an accomplishment, her parents told her that anything was possible.
“They always said the day would come when we would be recognized for our character,” she told The Associated Press in an interview that day.
In Congress, Meek championed affirmative action, economic opportunities for the poor and efforts to bolster democracy in and ease immigration restrictions on Haiti, the birthplace of many of her constituents.
She also was known for her liberal opinions, folksy yet powerful oratory and colorful Republican bashing.
“The last Republican that did something for me was Abraham Lincoln,” she told the state delegation to the 1996 Democratic Convention in Chicago.
Meek joined her son Kendrick, a former state trooper and state senator, in a 2000 sit-in at then-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s office to protest an end to affirmative action policies. She had long argued in favor of such policies, since earning her master’s degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1948. At the time, Blacks were not admitted to graduate schools in Florida.
Meek decided not to seek a sixth term in 2002. Her son Kendrick succeeded in winning her heavily Democratic district, a seat he held for four terms before an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate in 2010.
After leaving Congress, Carrie Meek returned to Miami and created a foundation to work on education and housing issues. She was also criticized for some of her business dealings.
She lobbied for a biotech park that was planned for Miami’s impoverished Liberty City neighborhood but never materialized. County authorities eventually started a criminal investigation, and the park’s developer was arrested in October 2009 on charges that he stole nearly $1 million from the project.
Congressional records showed that Meek was paid while her son sought millions of federal dollars for the project. Meek said she was paid as a consultant, and both mother and son denied their efforts were linked.
Before entering politics, Meek worked as a teacher and administrator at Miami-Dade College.
She was elected to the Florida House in 1978, succeeding pioneer Black legislator Gwen Cherry, who had been killed in an auto accident. She became one of the first African Americans and the first Black woman to serve in the Florida Senate since the 1800s
Carrie Pittman was born to Willie and Carrie Pittman in Tallahassee on April 29, 1926, and was the youngest of 12 children. Her father worked in nearby fields as a sharecropper and her mother took in laundry from white families.
She graduated from Florida A&M University in 1946 with a degree in biology and physical education. The university named its building for Black history archives in her honor in 2007. She was a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.
She accepted a position at Bethune Cookman College as an instructor and became the institution’s first female basketball coach. In 1958, she returned to Florida A&M as an instructor in health and physical education. She held that position until 1961.
Meek continued her teaching career at Miami Dade Community College as the first Black professor, associate dean, and assistant to the Vice President from 1961 to 1979.
Then, she began her trailblazing political career, representing Florida’s 17th Congressional District as a Democratic Florida State House Representative.
In Congress, Meek was a member of the powerful Appropriations Committee and worked to secure $100 million in aid to rebuild Dade County as the area recovered from Hurricane Andrew.
She retired in 2002 and shifted her focus to the Carrie Meek Foundation, which she founded in November 2001, to provide the Miami-Dade community with much-needed resources, opportunities, and jobs. Meek spearheaded the Foundation’s daily operations until 2015 when she stepped down due to declining health.
Meek is survived by her children Lucia Davis-Raiford, Sheila Davis Kinui and Kendrick B. Meek, seven grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and multiple nieces and nephews.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
In a statement, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava called Meek a “true trailblazer.”
“She was never afraid to use her voice to speak out against inequality or to fight for the disenfranchised and the vulnerable — and her towering legacy will continue to shape our community and the nation for generations to come,” Levine Cava said.
