Kendrick Meek

Kendrick Brett Meek (born September 6, 1966) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Florida's 17th congressional district from 2003 to 2011.

Kendrick, the son of retired Congresswoman Carrie Meek (née Pittman) and Harold H. Meek, was born on September 6, 1966, in Miami, Florida.

He is the great grandson of The Reverend Horatius "H.H." Coleman, who was pastor of Greater Macedonia Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan.

He graduated from Miami Springs High School in Miami, where he played football as a defensive lineman.

He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice in 1989 from Florida A&M University.

Meek was a star football player in college and also founded the Young Democrats at Florida A&M, later serving as President of the organization.

He was also initiated into the Omega Psi Phi fraternity through the Upsilon Psi chapter.

After graduating from college Meek was sworn in as a trooper with the Florida Highway Patrol and was assigned to Miami.

During his four-year tenure, Meek, through his political connections, became the first African American to reach the rank of captain.

He later served on the security detail for Democratic Lieutenant Governor, Buddy MacKay and subsequently launched his political career.

Meek served in the Florida House of Representatives from 1995 to 1998.

While in the Florida House, Meek worked on various economic and social justice issues.

This work culminated in building out a bipartisan coalition to provide compensation for Freddie Lee Pitts and Wilbert Lee, two African Americans who were falsely convicted of murder 35 years earlier.

Nineteen different attempts to pass legislation in the state legislature were defeated by a traditional Southern Democratic faction of conservative legislators from the Florida Panhandle.

In 1998, Meek reintroduced the bill in the Florida House and successfully allied with Republicans to pass it.

From 1998 to 2002, Kendrick Meek was a member of the Florida Senate.

Meek, along with fellow member Rep. Tony Hill, staged a sit-in protest in Governor Jeb Bush's office in January, 2000.

The sit-in lasted for 25 hours, with the central issue being a newly implemented "One Florida" plan to end official race/gender preferences in state government.

Meek said he and Hill staged the sit-in after they tried but were unable to get "a meeting with the governor— two members of the Florida legislature. Then the governor came in and was barking at us as though we were children, saying that if we expect for him to rescind his executive order, then we might as well order some blankets and get comfortable, which we did."

According to Tom Bearden, when Hill and Meek tried to meet with the Governor, "tempers flared".

The two lawmakers and Bush ended the sit-in after Bush agreed to delay implementation of the plan.

In February 2000, Meek said lawsuits might be filed to challenge university regents' authority to use the One Florida Initiative.

"I thank God for using you to bring us to this point."

After serving in both houses of the Florida Legislature, Meek was elected to Congress in the 2002 election to succeed his mother Carrie Meek.

Governor Bush pointed to the .3% increase in minority enrollment in Florida public-universities between 2002 and 2003 as evidence that the One Florida Initiative was working.

Meek responded by accusing Bush of throwing out numbers to 'fake out' Floridians, telling Bush he had "better check those numbers two or three times. It's been a struggle for students of African-American descent. That's where the historical discrimination has been."

Florida Atlantic University is the only school that had an increase in African-American freshmen, from 17.2% freshman in 2002 to 18.9% in 2003.

In 2002, Meek launched an initiative to reduce class sizes in Florida's public schools.

Meek spearheaded a petition drive that collected more than 500,000 signatures, allowing the issue to be listed — as Amendment 9 — on the 2002 ballot.

He also guided the amendment through two opposition efforts in the Florida Supreme Court as well as the public campaign to oppose the amendment.

On November 5, 2002, Florida voters approved the amendment 52.4% to 47.6%.

Meek was a member of the New Democrat Coalition.

Meek supports an increase in the minimum wage.

Meek and Hill issued a press release on June 23, 2003, applauding the Supreme Court for upholding the legality of affirmative action and criticizing Bush for his One Florida Initiative, calling for an end to the initiative in light of the Supreme Court's ruling, because the initiative has "only served to divide Florida along racial lines."

It would also require schools to reduce class sizes by two students in 2003 and to reach full compliance by the beginning of the 2010 school year.

Supporters of the amendment, including People for the American Way, Florida Education Association, and Florida NAACP, focused on large classes in many urban areas of Florida which had as many as 40 students: Meek said, "[for] the first time parents will have a chance to vote on something they've always wanted and that is smaller class sizes."

Then-Florida governor Jeb Bush and state legislature Republicans opposed the bill because it was unclear how much the amendment would cost: "While this may be a worthy goal, we still have to ask the question, where will the money come from?"

said Liz Hirst, press secretary to Governor Bush.

Meek was the Democratic nominee in the 2010 Senate election, coming in third behind Republican Marco Rubio and independent candidate Charlie Crist.

The amendment would set the maximum class sizes of pre-kindergarten through 3rd grade classes to 18, 4th through 8th grade classes to 22, and high school classes to 25.