Representative Sheila Jackson Lee To Speak at Afro-American Cultural Center's 30th Anniversary Celebration

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, a 1972 graduate of Yale College, will give the keynote address at “Making the House Our Home,” the 30th anniversary celebration of the Afro-American Cultural Center at Yale (AACC), which will be held Friday-Sunday, April 16P18.

The celebration will comprise a panel discussion; social events, including a 1970s theme party; a luncheon and banquet; and services by the Black Church at Yale. Events will be held at the AACC, 211 Park St., and at the Omni New Haven Hotel, 155 Temple St.

Jackson Lee will be the featured speaker at Saturday evening’s banquet. A Democrat, Lee was reelected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1998 from the ethnically diverse18th Congressional District of Texas. Prior to her election to Congress, she served two terms as one of the first African-American women elected to an at-large post on the Houston City Council and was an associate municipal court judge for the City of Houston.

Throughout her career, Jackson Lee has championed legislation concerning human rights, homelessness and communications regulation. A veteran of both corporate and private law practice, she serves on the Crime Subcommittee of the House Committee on the Judiciary and on the Committee on Sciences’ Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, Basic Research and Energy and Environment. She also serves on caucuses focusing on such issues as women’s rights, hunger, welfare reform, the Internet, affirmative action, and travel and tourism.

Tickets for the Saturday night banquet–which starts at 6 p.m.– are $30 for non-students, $20 for students and $15 for members of the AACC. For information and tickets, call 432-4131.