Born on August 15, 1938
Congresswoman Maxine Waters was born in St. Louis and graduated from Vashon High School before moving to Los Angeles. Waters served in the California State Assembly from 1976-1990, where she led the effort to divest state pension funds from apartheid South Africa. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1990, Waters helped create the Minority AIDS Initiative in 1998, and in 2012 she became the first woman and the first African American to chair the House Financial Services Committee. Tenacious, fearless and outspoken, Maxine Waters fought to improve the lives of women, children, minorities and the poor in over 40 years of public service.
