Elijah Cummings

Elijah Eugene Cummings (January 18, 1951October 17, 2019) was an American politician and civil rights advocate who served in the United States House of Representatives for MD's 7th congressional district from 1996 until his death in 2019, when he was succeeded by his predecessor Kweisi Mfume.

The district he represented included over half of the city of Baltimore, including most of the majority-black precincts of Baltimore County, and most of Howard County, Maryland.

Cummings was born on January 18, 1951, in Baltimore, son of Ruth Elma (Cochran) and Robert Cummings.

His parents were sharecroppers.

He was the third child of seven.

When he was 11 years old, Cummings and some friends worked to integrate a segregated swimming pool in South Baltimore.

Cummings graduated with honors from Baltimore City College high school in 1969.

He then attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he served in the student government as sophomore class president, student government treasurer, and later student government president.

He became a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and graduated in 1973 with a Bachelor's degree in Political Science.

Cummings graduated from law school at the University of Maryland School of Law, receiving his Juris Doctor in 1976, and was admitted to the bar in Maryland later that year.

A member of the Democratic Party, Cummings previously served in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1983 to 1996.

He practiced law for 19 years before first being elected to the United States House of Representatives in the 1996 election.

For 14 years, Cummings served in the Maryland House of Delegates.

His predecessor, Lena King Lee, raised funds and campaigned for him; years later, Cummings credited her with launching his political career.

In the Maryland General Assembly, he served as Chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland and was the first African American in Maryland history to be named Speaker Pro Tempore, the second highest position in the House of Delegates.

Cummings also served on several boards and commissions, both in and out of Baltimore.

Those include SEED Schools of Maryland Board of Directors and the University of Maryland Law School Board of Advisors.

He served on numerous Maryland boards and commissions including the Board of Visitors to the United States Naval Academy and the Elijah Cummings Youth Program in Israel.

He was an honorary member of the Baltimore Zoo Board of Trustees.

In addition to his speaking engagements, he wrote a biweekly column for the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper.

Congressman Elijah Cummings was a member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity and a Prince Hall Mason.

Cummings received praise following the congressional panel hearings on steroids in 2008.

While investigating the use of steroids in sports, the panel called numerous baseball players to testify, including former single season home run record holder Mark McGwire.

After McGwire answered many questions in a vague fashion, Cummings demanded to know if he was "taking the Fifth", referring to the Fifth Amendment.

McGwire responded by saying, "I am here to talk about the future, not about the past."

The exchange came to epitomize the entire inquiry.

In December 2010, Edolphus Towns announced that he would not seek the position of ranking minority member of the Oversight Committee in the next Congress, even though his seniority and service as chair would typically result in his filling this post.

Reportedly, Towns withdrew because of a lack of support from Nancy Pelosi who feared that he would not be a sufficiently aggressive leader of Democrats in an anticipated struggle with incoming committee chair Republican Darrell Issa.

Reportedly, the White House also wanted Towns to be replaced.

Cummings defeated Carolyn Maloney in a vote of the House Democratic Caucus.

In his role as chair of the Oversight Committee, Cummings presided over the first public testimony by President Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, and was a leading figure in the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump.

Carolyn Maloney was named acting chair by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and won the subsequent election in the Democratic caucus to serve as permanent chair.

Cummings was a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

He served as chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus during the 108th United States Congress.

Cummings introduced the Presidential and Federal Records Act Amendments of 2014, a bipartisan bill signed into law by then-President Barack Obama in December 2014.

The bill, which Cummings co-sponsored with Representative Darrell Issa, (R-California), is a set of amendments to the Federal Records Act and Presidential Records Act.

Among other provisions, the bill modernizes the definition of a federal record to expressly include electronic documents.

He supported the Smart Savings Act, a bill that would make the default investment in the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) an age-appropriate target date asset allocation investment fund (L Fund) instead of the Government Securities Investment Fund (G Fund).

Cummings called the bill a "commonsense change" and argued that the bill "will enable workers to take full advantage of a diversified fund designed to yield higher returns".

Cummings served as the chair of the Committee on Oversight and Reform from January 2019 until his death in October of the same year.