With A Nod To Her Mentor Shirley Chisholm, Rep. Barbara Lee Exits Congress As A Renegade Herself

Rep. Barbara Lee has always stood apart, a matter-of-fact renegade with a long list of firsts.

In high school, she was the first Black student to integrate her Southern California cheerleading squad.

During the Democrat's more than two decades in Congress, she has been the only Black woman elected to the House from California's regions north of Los Angeles.

But it was Lee's lonely 2001 vote as the only lawmaker against the authorization for the use of military force against those responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks that indelibly set her apart.

"If you really believe that this is the right thing for the country, for your district, for the world, then you have to do it, and be damned everything else," Lee told The Associated Press during a recent breakfast interview at the Capitol.