This year’s dinner honored, Elijah Cummings, U.S. Representative for Maryland’s 7th Congressional District, has served since 1996. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes just over half of Baltimore City, as well as most of Howard County. He previously served in the Maryland House of Delegates.
In his speech he highlighted that every day when he wakes up he prays “GOD allowed me to see me like you see me!” and that “our policy is born out of our passion to live our purpose!”
Born in Baltimore, he graduated with honors from Baltimore City College in 1969. He later attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he served in the student government as sophomore class president, student government treasurer and later student government president. He became a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and graduated in 1973 with a Bachelor of Arts in political science.
Cummings attended law school at the University of Maryland School of Law, graduating in 1976 and entering the Maryland Bar in December 1976. He practiced law for 19 years before being elected to the House in the 1996 elections.
For 16 years, Cummings served in the Maryland House of Delegates. In the Maryland General Assembly, he served as chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland and was the first African American in Maryland history to be named Speaker Pro Tempore, the second highest position in the House of Delegates.
Cummings is part of the Task Force on Health Care Reform and co-founder and chairman of the Congressional Caucus on Drug Policy. He is married to Dr. Maya Rockeymoore. (Source Wikipedia)
Check out more pictures of the Phoenix Award winner below. –joi pearson @JoiAPearson
Photos by Joi Pearson Photography
former president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Elaine Jones
