Elijah Cummings
Elijah Cummings 1951 - 2019
Elijah Cummings served in the U.S. House of Representatives, proudly advocating for Baltimoreans while serving Maryland’s 7thCongressional District for nearly twenty-five years. Rep. Cummings’ roots in the community are deep, as he completed his undergraduate studies at the local HBCU Howard University and subsequently earning his law degree from the University of Maryland, Baltimore.
Cummings was a true statesman. He put the people of this country ahead of his political party and each day he entered the chamber, he pursued a genuine interest in making the lives of disadvantaged people better.
During a 2019 speech to the National Press Club, Cummings took aim at the racial animus being stirred by Donald Trump. Cummings lectured, “Those in the highest levels of the government must stop invoking fear, using racist language and encouraging reprehensible behavior.” Even when chastising the divisiveness of others’ rhetoric, Cummings finds a way to remind and encourage folks to do the right thing. Doing so, Cummings continued, “creates more division among us and severely limits our ability to work together for the common good.”
Since Cummings’ youth he has been invested in fighting for what is right. With help from the NAACP, at just 11 years of age, Cummings organized a group of Black children to protest and demand a local swimming pool integrate. That moment in his youth was the first of many civil rights victories for Cummings.
As a young child Cummings was told by his teacher that he spoke poorly and could not learn well enough to achieve his dream of becoming a lawyer. Cummings used his teachers lack confidence in his potential as fuel. It drove him to work even harder to excel in school. After his legal career, Cummings went on to serve in the Maryland House of Delegates. In the Maryland General Assembly, Cummings became the first Black lawmaker to serve as Speaker Pro Tempore, the second highest office in that body.
At his funeral, former President Barack Obama highlighted one of Cummings’ great attributes. At the podium, Pres. Obama turned and admired an image of Cummings being projected. On the image were the words “The Honorable Congressman Elijah E. Cummings” with his birth date. Pres. Obama then turned and addressed the crowd, stating, “This is a title that we confer on all kinds of people who get elected to public office. We’re supposed to introduce them as ‘Honorable.’ But Elijah Cummings was honorable before he was elected to office. There’s a difference. There’s a difference if you were honorable and treated others honorably outside the limelight.”
No truer words have been spoken about Elijah Cummings. Getting elected to public office does not automatically make someone worthy of the title honorable. For Cummings, it came from his tireless, selfless pursuit of justice and equality.
