October 5,1932:
On this day, a trailblazing Congresswan was born.
Yvonne Braithwaite Burke has achieved a number of firsts during her career in American politics. Yvonne Brathwaite Burke was the first Black woman elected to Congress from California as well as the first member of the House of Representatives to give birth while in office and the first to be given maternity leave by the Speaker of the House. She also was the first African-American vice chair of the Democratic National Committee and was the first woman to head the Congressional Black Caucus. She became the first African-American member of the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors, a position she has held on and off since 1978. Time magazine once selected her as one of “America’s 200 Future Leaders,” and she was named as Woman of the Year by the Los Angeles Times.
