A Unique House Minority Leader

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr., Day. This blog honors the great civil rights leader by featuring a Black leader from a younger generation: Hakeem Jeffries.

Jeffries, a six-term Brooklyn congressman, is now the minority leader in the House of Representatives. He is the first Black person to hold this position. A Democrat, Jeffries is the first Black person to head a party caucus in either chamber of Congress.

The election of Jeffries as House Democratic leader was unanimous. That’s in sharp contrast to the election of the Speaker of the House, a position held by the majority party, which is now the Republicans. Kevin McCarthy finally garnered enough votes to be declared Speaker on the fifteenth round of balloting.