Elijah Cummings

A sharecroppers’ son who served nearly four decades in state and national legislatures, Elijah Cummings (1951-2019) used his position to advocate for all Americans. Cummings was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1951. After earning degrees in political science and law, he founded a law practice in Baltimore, where he worked until his election to the United States Congress in 1996.

. . . we, as leaders, have a duty and a responsibility to keep our promise to [Americans] when we ran for office and won—and that is to make their lives better.

A member of Baltimore’s Corinthian Lodge No. 62, Cummings exemplified Masonic values of relief and service. He spent more than twenty years on government oversight and reform committees, working to make the American government better for its constituents.

I always try to concentrate on not so much on who I’m fighting against, but what I’m fighting for.

Cummings–a lifelong Democrat–strove to increase bipartisan collaboration in Congress through both legislation and committee work. Of the more than four thousand bills he sponsored in his time in Congress, over twenty percent were cosponsored with Republican or independent colleagues.

After his death at age sixty-eight, Cummings lay in state in the Capitol Building, the first Black Member of Congress to receive that honor. Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have paid homage to Cummings’ legacy through legislation named for him that reflected his voting rights and health care priorities.

Photo Caption: Elijah E. Cummings. US House Office of Photography.