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Wed, 09.07.19387

Juanita Millender-McDonald, Politician born

Juanita Millender-McDonald

*Juanita Millender-McDonald was born on this date in 1938.  She was a Black teacher and politician.

From Birmingham, Alabama, in 1981, Millender-McDonald earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Redlands and, in 1988, her Master's Degree in Educational Administration from California State University Los Angeles. She also received her teaching and Administration credentials from the California State University system.

She was a teacher, a member of the Carson, California City Council, and the California State Assembly before entering the United States House of Representatives in 1996, representing California's 37th congressional district. On December 19, 2006, Millender-McDonald was named Chairwoman of the House Committee on House Administration for the 110th Congress. She was the first African American woman to chair the committee. She was also a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

She married James McDonald, Jr., and was the parents and grandparents of five adult children and five grandchildren. On April 22, 2007, Millender-McDonald died of cancer at 68 at her home in Carson, California.

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I kissed a kiss in youth Upon a dead man's brow; And that was long ago- And I'm a grown man now. It's lain there in the dust, Thirty years and more- My lips that... SCINTILLA by William Stanley Braithwaite.
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