Carrie Meek
Former U.S. Congresswoman
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As a Miami-Dade Community College administrator, Meek led integration efforts that resulted in the college's desegregation in 1963. Following Hurricane Andrew's devastation, her congressional efforts secured $100 million in federal assistance to rebuild Dade County. As a U.S. Congresswoman, she served on the House Appropriations Committee and advocated for economic development and immigration issues critical to her Miami district, while championing affordable housing initiatives that created thousands of rental units.
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Carrie Mae Meek was born April 29, 1926, in Tallahassee, Florida, to the daughter of sharecroppers. She earned her BA from Florida A&M University in 1946 and her MS in public health and physical education from the University of Michigan in 1948. After teaching at Bethune-Cookman College and Florida A&M, Meek relocated to Miami in 1961 to serve as special assistant to the vice president at Miami-Dade Community College, where she played a central role in the school's desegregation in 1963. She launched her political career in 1979, becoming the first African American woman elected to the Florida State Senate in 1982, before winning election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1992.