CONGRESSWOMAN Maxine Waters is considered to be one of the most powerful and influential women in politics.
Throughout her career, she worked to end apartheid in South Africa and worked toward improving equality and human rights.
Who is Congresswoman Maxine Waters?
Maxine Waters, 83, was elected to her sixteenth term in Congress for California’s 35th congressional district in November 2020 and has continued to hold an influential role for over 40 years in politics.
Growing up during segregation in St. Louis, Missouri, the fifth of 13 brothers and sisters living with their single mom, Waters knew the value of hard work, perseverance, and the need for change in an evolving country.
“I’ve seen a lot of poverty — coming up as a young child, lost hopes and dreams, and people that never had a chance to have a decent quality of life. I believe we can do a lot greater than that,” Waters told the Los Angeles Times in 2017.
She worked her first jobs simultaneously when she was 23 years old, at a garment factory and as a telephone operator.
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Five years later, in 1966, she was hired as an assistant teacher for the newly founded Head Start Program which is still run in 2022 and provides care and pre-education for children up to five years old in low-income families.
While working for the Head Start Program, Waters made the decision to go to college and attended California State University at Los Angeles, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree.
Although she found joy working for the Head Start Program, Waters quit her job in an effort to switch to politics where she ran for the California State Assembly and won. She was 38 years old.
Waters worked for the California State Assembly for 14 years before running for Congress in California for the 29th district seat in 1990, a role that she won.
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The following year, Waters ran for the slightly larger 35th district and won the seat in a landslide election with 83 percent of the votes.
Waters is the longest-serving Black woman in the House and in December 2018, she became the first woman and African American to chair the House Financial Services Committee.
She told Spectrum News1 in 2021, “I hope I’ll be remembered as someone who fought, who fought for young people, who fought for people of color, who worked hard to ensure justice and equality for everybody.”
How has Maxine Waters impacted Americans?
Waters earned the title Auntie Maxine by Millennials in 2017 when she urged Americans to “stay woke” in the face of Donald Trump’s presidency.
“It’s unusual for elected officials to step outside of the box,” Waters told the Los Angeles Times.
“The millennials keep telling me for the most part they’ve never heard someone talk like that before,” she added.
She is known for expressing her beliefs and commenting on controversial topics that other government officials wouldn’t.
In 1994, Waters spoke up to criticize a Republican Congress member who she believed had badgered a witness, and when she refused to stop criticizing the individual, she was gaveled off the house floor.
Her slights over the years have not been biased as she went on to criticize then-President Barack Obama in 2011.
She said he was neglecting black communities and said the tea party could go “straight to hell.”
“Nobody should be surprised about me,” she said.
“She’s been consistent, and it’s playing a very important role right now,” Rep. Karen Bass told the Los Angeles Times.
The pair met when Waters organized marches in the 1980s to oppose the apartheid in South Africa.
“She’s a fighter,” Bass said. “And that’s what people are looking for: the resistance. People want to see somebody fight.”
Maxine Waters says she will fight for women’s right to abortion[/caption]
What did Maxine Waters say about the Roe v Wade ruling?
The Supreme Court ruled to abolish Roe v Wade which gave women the constitutional right to an abortion.
The decision was announced on June 24, 2022, in a 6 to 3 vote and will send the decision to legalize abortion back to state legislatures.
After the ruling, Waters protested outside the Supreme Court building alongside New York Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and outraged groups of men and women.
“You ain’t seen nothing yet,” Waters said standing on the steps of the court.
“Women are going to control their bodies no matter how they try and stop us. The hell with the Supreme Court. We will defy them.
“Women will be in control of their bodies. And if they think Black women are intimidated or afraid, they got another thought coming.”
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She continued, “Black women will be out in droves. We will be out by the thousands, we will be out by the millions.
“We are going to make sure we fight for the right to control our own bodies.”
