Congresswoman-elect Cori Bush is the first Black Lives Matter organizer who will serve in the House of Representatives. (Michael B. Thomas/For the Washington Post)
By Jada Yuan
Cori Bush was living six minutes from Ferguson in 2014, working as a registered nurse and pastor, when 18-year-old Michael Brown Jr. was shot and killed by a White police officer. She joined the explosive, tear-gas-filled protests on the second night. “I’m like, ‘I’m a nurse, so I could be a medic. I’m clergy so I can pray with people,’ ” she said. And she kept showing up, becoming a standout grass-roots organizer among her fellow protesters, as the protests continued for more than 400 days after that. And six years after that.
Bush, 44, got sick of asking public officials to make sweeping changes, particularly regarding criminal justice. So she ran for Congress, winning on her third try. On Jan. 3, she will be sworn in at the Capitol — not just as the first Black woman to represent Missouri in her state’s 200-year history, but also as the first day-in-and-day-out BLM protester to earn a seat in those hallowed halls. Last week, she was appointed to the powerful House Judiciary Committee, which she had been lobbying for ever since winning her primary.
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