‘He worked until his last breath’
Son of sharecroppers fought for civil rights
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, the son of sharecroppers who rose to represent parts of Baltimore, the city where he was born and raised, died early Thursday at age 68.
The Maryland Democrat died at Gilchrist Hospice Care, which is affiliated with Johns Hopkins Hospital, at about 2:30 a.m. EDT from “complications concerning longstanding health challenges,” his office said in a statement.
He underwent a medical procedure in September that had kept him from returning to work.
On Sept. 30, he had told The Baltimore Sun that he expected to be back in Congress by mid-October.
Cummings, as chairman of the House Oversight Committee, had recently sparred with President Donald Trump as the 23-year veteran of Capitol Hill led multiple investigations into the president and his administration. Those investigations also involved the president’s family members serving in the White House – his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
A school counselor once told Cummings that he was too slow a learner and too poor a speaker to ever fulfill his dream of becoming a lawyer. In 1996, Cummings told The Associated Press those comments left him “devastated.”
“My whole life changed. I became very determined,” said Cummings, who went on to become not just a lawyer, but also a judge.
Cummings was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1983, where he served until 1996. In 1995, he became the first African American to serve as speaker pro tempore in the Maryland Legislature.
He was elected to the House of Representatives in a 1996 special election to fill the seat vacated when Rep. Kweisi Mfume left Congress to head the NAACP.
His widow, Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, is chairwoman of the Maryland Democratic Party.
“Congressman Cummings was an honorable man who proudly served his district and the nation with dignity, integrity, compassion and humility,” she said in a statement.
“He worked until his last breath because he believed our democracy was the highest and best expression of our collective humanity and that our nation’s diversity was our promise, not our problem. It has been an honor to walk by his side on this incredible journey. I loved him deeply and will miss him dearly,” she said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office announced Thursday that flags at the Capitol would be flown half-staff to honor Cummings. The speaker said America “lost a voice of unsurpassed moral clarity and truth.”
“In the House, Elijah was our North Star,” she said. “He was a leader of towering character and integrity, whose stirring voice and steadfast values pushed the Congress and country to rise always to a higher purpose.”
A former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Cummings was outspoken on civil rights and voter access.
In 2004, he called on then-President George W. Bush to send troops to Haiti as part of an international force to restore order and protect democracy there. And he was a leading voice among the caucus members last year who called for congressional hearings to examine the fatal shootings of black people by police officers.
In July, Trump lashed out at Cummings after the congressman criticized the administration’s handling of migrant detention centers and his committee authorized subpoenas for senior White House officials’ electronic communications. The president called Cummings a “brutal bully” and said Baltimore was a “rodent-infested mess” where “no human being would want to live.”
“Mr. President, I go home to my district daily. Each morning, I wake up, and I go and fight for my neighbors,” Cummings said in response.
He called on Trump to help the city address its problems with poverty and crime, rather than “trash” it.
Trump’s remarks were condemned as racist by many, including Pelosi. The president denied being racist and inexplicably called Cummings “racist” in turn. After Trump told four minority congresswomen to “go back” to their countries of origin, Cummings told The Baltimore Sun the president’s rhetoric took him back to the racial animosity he felt during the civil rights era.
“I’m feeling the same things that I felt when these white folks down in South Baltimore were throwing rocks and bottles at me. But now, I feel like it’s the president of the United States doing it.”
On Thursday, Trump offered his “warmest condolences” to Cummings’ family and friends.
“I got to see first hand the strength, passion and wisdom of this highly respected political leader,” Trump tweeted. “His work and voice on so many fronts will be very hard, if not impossible, to replace!”
“Today we have lost a giant,” House Majority Whip James Clyburn said in a statement.
“He was a leader of towering character and integrity.” Nancy Pelosi Speaker of the House