Sheila Jackson Lee dies at 74; longtime Texas congresswoman was ‘a fierce champion of the people’

(CNN) — Sheila Jackson Lee, a longtime Democratic congresswoman from Texas who was an outspoken advocate for Black Americans for decades, has died. She was 74.

“Today, with incredible grief for our loss yet deep gratitude for the life she shared with us, we announce the passing of United States Representative Sheila Jackson Lee of the 18th Congressional District of Texas,” her family said in a statement Friday, July 19.

Jackson Lee announced in June that she had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.