Miami Dade College honored the legacy of former Congresswoman Carrie P. Meek with a historical marker at the Carrie P. Meek Entrepreneurial Education Center in Liberty City on Saturday.
The event was attended by several Miami community leaders, elected officials, educators, students and college alumni, as well as family members of the late Meek, including her son, former U.S. Rep. Kendrick B. Meek, and her daughter, Lucia Davis-Raiford, president and CEO of the Carrie Meek Foundation. Congresswoman Frederica Wilson’s office also participated in the ceremony and presented the college with a $500,000 check to support community initiatives.
Carrie P. Meek was born April 29, 1926, in Tallahassee, the youngest of 12 children and the granddaughter of a woman who had been born enslaved. Raised in segregated Florida, Meek earned a bachelor’s degree from Florida A&M University in 1946 and a master’s degree from the University of Michigan in 1948. She began her career as an educator, teaching and coaching at Bethune-Cookman University and Florida A&M before joining Miami Dade Community College in 1961, where she spent three decades as a professor and administrator.
Meek entered politics in 1979, when she won a seat in the Florida House of Representatives. She later served in the Florida Senate from 1983 to 1993, becoming the first Black woman elected to the chamber. Her legislative work included education, literacy and minority business initiatives.
(Miami Dade College)
In 1992, Meek was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming one of the first three Black Floridians elected to Congress since Reconstruction. During her 10 years in Congress, she served on the House Appropriations Committee and advocated for federal disaster aid following Hurricane Andrew, economic development, affordable housing, immigration and programs benefiting minority communities. She also worked on health care and welfare issues and advocated for Miami-Dade’s Haitian community.
Meek retired from Congress in 2003 and was succeeded by her son, Kendrick B. Meek. She remained active in education and community development through the Carrie Meek Foundation and other efforts. Meek died Nov. 28, 2021, at 95.
Saturday’s unveiling of the historic marker also recognized the Carrie P. Meek Entrepreneurial Education Center’s recent designation by the Florida Civil Rights Museum.