[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 6355]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   TRIBUTE TO YVONNE BRATHWAITE BURKE

  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, today I honor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, 
who is retiring at the end of 2008, after a distinguished and 
illustrious career spanning 50 years as a public servant in the State 
of California.
  I wish to extend to Mrs. Burke, who served as a Representative of 
California's 37th Congressional District from 1973 to 1979, my sincere 
congratulations for the decades of dedicated service that she has given 
to her Nation, her State, and her county.
  She is currently serving as chair of the Los Angeles County Board of 
Supervisors and is in the final year of her fourth term on the board.
  For the past 15 years, she has represented the Second Supervisorial 
District.
  Supervisor Burke will be remembered as a devoted public servant who 
amassed numerous accomplishments and countless awards--in addition to 
inspiring women and minorities to pursue careers in public service.
  As a product of the Los Angeles Unified School District, Mrs. Burke 
developed an interest in public speaking and participated in several 
citywide competitions during her high school years.
  Her involvement in these events and many extracurricular activities 
helped her to obtain scholarships to the UC Berkeley and later at UCLA.
  In 1956, Mrs. Burke received a law degree from the University of 
Southern California School of Law.
  It was difficult for women, particularly African Americans, to 
practice law, because many private law firms showed little interest in 
hiring women as attorneys.
  So Mrs. Burke opened her own law office in Los Angeles.
  She specialized in immigration and civil rights and fought 
segregation in real estate law.
  Mrs. Burke was active in the civil rights movement with memberships 
in various local and national organizations.
  She subsequently landed a staff attorney position on the McCone 
Commission, which investigated the causes of the 1965 Watts riots in 
Los Angeles.
  She became a spokesperson for the underrepresented and, through a 
grassroots campaign, won her first political office in 1966 as a 
California State assemblywoman.
  It was a position she held for the next 6 years.
  In 1972, Mrs. Burke became the first African American woman--west of 
the Mississippi River--to be elected to the U.S. House of 
Representatives.
  She was selected to serve as vice chair of the 1972 Democratic 
National Convention in Miami and later on the House Select Committee on 
Assassinations.
  She also was the first Congresswoman to give birth while in office.
  Mrs. Burke did not seek re-election to Congress in 1978 but instead 
ran for attorney general of California.
  She won the Democratic nomination, but subsequently was defeated in 
the general election.
  In 1979, Mrs. Burke was appointed by the Governor of California to 
fill a vacancy in the Fourth Supervisorial District in Los Angeles 
County and served in that capacity until the end of 1980.
  She also was appointed by the Governor to serve on the Board of 
Regents of the University of California in 1982.
  Two years later, Mrs. Burke was selected to serve as vice chair of 
the 1984 U.S. Olympics Organizing Committee.
  In 1992, she became the first African American elected to the Los 
Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
  She played a significant role in the 2000 Democratic National 
Convention, hosting an event for hundreds of African American elected 
officials nationwide.
  Supervisor Burke represents nearly 2.5 million residents in the 
Second District of the Nation's largest county.
  Her efforts primarily have focused on improving the lives of 
children, encouraging economic development, and improving 
transportation throughout Los Angeles, as well as promoting public 
social services, health care for the uninsured, and affirmative action 
for women and the economically disadvantaged.
  In addition, she has taken the lead in establishing a county archives 
system.
  These are just some of Yvonne Brathwaite Burke's significant 
accomplishments.
  On behalf of the U.S. Senate and the State of California, I extend my 
heartfelt gratitude for her immeasurable contributions throughout her 
renowned career.
  With sincere best wishes, I congratulate Supervisor Burke upon her 
retirement from elective office.
  And I am pleased to join her many coworkers; her family: her husband 
William, her daughter Autumn and stepdaughter Christine; friends; and 
associates in wishing her health, happiness, and continued good fortune 
in her future endeavors.

                          ____________________