Terri Sewell

Terri Sewell

Terrycina Andrea "Terri" Sewell (born January 1, 1965) is the U.S. Representative for Alabama's 7th Congressional District. She is a member of the Democratic Party. She has served as the U.S. Representative for Alabama's 7th Congressional District since 2011.

The 7th Congressional District includes parts of the cities of Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, as well as the counties of Alabama’s Black Belt – the heart of which is Terri Sewell’s hometown of Selma.

Background

Terri Sewell is the daughter of retired Coach Andrew A. Sewell and retired librarian Nancy Gardner Sewell, the first black City Councilwoman in Selma, Alabama.

Sewell was raised in Selma. Her maternal family offered its homestead to travelers on the 1965 March from Selma to Montgomery.

Terri Sewell served as Co-Chair of the Women’s Fund “Voices Against Violence” inaugural campaign, which promoted women helping women to overcome domestic violence. The campaign raised more than $70,000 in four months to fight domestic violence in Birmingham, providing funds to establish the first Domestic Violence Court in Birmingham Municipal Court. Sewell led the effort to have Teach for America select Alabama’s Black Belt region as a new site in 2010.

Sewell has served on numerous boards including: St. Vincent’s Foundation (elected Treasurer of the Board and Chair of its Finance Committee); Girl Scouts of Cahaba Council; the Alabama Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society; the Community Advisory Board for the UAB Minority Health and Research Center; the Governing Board of the Alabama Council on Economic Education; and she is a member of the Corporate Partners Council for Birmingham Art Museum.

Sewell was listed in Alabama Super Lawyers for 2008 and 2009 and was honored with the 2007 Minority Business “Rising Star” award by the Birmingham Business Journal (BBJ). She was also selected by the BBJ as one of the “Top Birmingham Women” in 2005. She was a member of the class of 2006-2007 Leadership Birmingham, a member of the YWCA’s Women Leadership MOMENTUM class of 2007-2008. She is currently a member of the class of 2008-2009 Leadership Alabama.

Sewell is a lifetime member of Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma and currently worships at Sixth Avenue Baptist Church in Birmingham. She was also selected to participate on the panel, "From Lincoln to Obama," for the Congressional Black Caucus' Annual Legislative Forum to discuss Southern politics.

She is an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and The Links, Incorporated.

Education

The first black valedictorian of Selma High School, Terri Sewell attended Princeton University, graduating cum laude in 1986. Terri was awarded a Marshall/Commonwealth Scholarship and received a Master's Degree with first class Honors from Oxford University in 1988.

A lifelong Democrat, during the summers while in college, Sewell worked on Capitol Hill for 7th Congressional District Congressman Richard Shelby, as well as for then Alabama Senator Howell Heflin. She served in various roles including Class Vice-President, Class Representative to the Student Union and spearheading the admission office’s effort to set up a Minority Student Recruitment office to recruit and encourage more minority students to attend the university.

She is a 1992 graduate of Harvard Law School where she served as an editor of the Civil Rights Civil Liberties Law Review.

Early connections

Terri Sewell of Alabama is one of only a handful of people who can say she knew Barack Obama and Michelle Obama before they knew even each other.

Her friendship with Kirsten Gillibrand goes back so far that Sewell calls New York’s junior senator by an old nickname: “Tina.” And nearly 30 years ago, Sewell recruited Susan Rice, the woman who would go on to become National Security Adviser, to join a gospel choir.

Sewell’s youthful encounters with future prominent leaders are notable, even for the standards of the Ivy League schools she attended. But the self-described “little girl from Selma” says a greater force was at work.

“As a Southerner steeped in the church, I do believe in divine intervention,” Sewell told CQ Roll Call.

Sewell grew up in the Deep South in the aftermath of the Civil Rights movement. She came from a modest background in an economically poor region. Her mom was the librarian and her dad coached basketball and taught math at the local public high school, where Sewell was selected as the first black valedictorian in 1982.

She describes her freshman year at Princeton University as brutally tough, saying she felt as if she was “playing a fast game of catch-up” among students groomed at Andover and Phillips Exeter.

But she also points to that time as the pivotal moment in her trajectory.

“I got my ticket stamped by going to Princeton,” she said. “That was the ticket that sent me on my way.”

Sewell added, “If I didn’t make it, they would never, ever have another person from Selma into Princeton again.”

To guide students like Sewell through the transition, Princeton matched minority freshmen with upper classmen mentors.

Sewell assumed her “Big Sis” would be another black student she knew from Alabama. Instead, a different woman entered her mentor match meeting.

“In walks my Big Sister, and it’s Michelle Robinson,” Sewell said, laughing as she described her first encounter with the woman who would later become first lady of the United States. “That’s the first thing I thought, ‘Oh, she’s really tall.’ … I can remember it like it’s yesterday.”

Sewell described Robinson as one of the most popular and connected students on campus, thanks to the fact that her older brother, Craig Robinson, was a star basketball player. (He went on to coach college teams.)

After graduating from Princeton in 1986, Sewell earned a Marshall/Commonwealth Scholarship at Oxford University. While there, she struck up a friendship with Rice, then a Rhodes Scholar.

She, Rice, and a handful of black female Oxford students had a standing lunch every Friday at a local restaurant, The Nosebag.

The pair pursued their passions at Oxford. For Sewell, it was performing on stage; for Rice, it was basketball.

Sewell produced, directed and starred in a play titled “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf.”

The play called for a cast of seven African American women. Sewell held auditions over a Monday and Tuesday, but only one person showed up. With her play falling apart, she went to her regular lunch with the Nosebag crew.

“Friday comes and, I walk in, and I’m like, ‘Oh hell, here is the rest of my play,’” she said.

Rice told CQ Roll Call in an interview she still remembers being recruited for the gig, “along with several others of us that she forced into service.”

“It was my first and only acting experience,” Rice said. “It was a heck of a lot of fun.”

Another Rhodes Scholar named Ben Sherwood also chipped in to help with the production. These days he is the co-president of the Disney/ABC Television Group.

Sewell also talked Rice into what she now describes as “probably, the first-ever and maybe the last gospel choir at Oxford.”

After Oxford, Sewell followed Robinson on to Harvard Law School. By the time Sewell arrived in Cambridge, her former Big Sis already had graduated and returned to Chicago.

A photo hangs in Sewell’s congressional office of the black students in her law class. It includes a litany of future administration officials, judges and former “CSI: New York” star Hill Harper. Then there’s the guy who would one day become the nation’s first black president.

The congresswoman sheepishly concedes that the 20-something Barack Obama wasn’t the person from that group she would have imagined would go on to lead the free world. He was the second-most likely.

“If I could say what makes the difference between the person I thought could have been the first black president in this picture, and the one who is, the difference is Michelle Obama,” Sewell said.

She describes Robinson as “truly a people person,” while Obama is “much more of an introvert than people assume he is, because he’s a politician,” adding, “They balance each other.”

Little did Sewell know that her two friends would begin dating, and when she found out they were getting married, “I couldn’t believe it … it was so fortuitous. … Two worlds colliding.”

Sewell began work in 1994 in New York City at Davis Polk & Wardwell, one of the most elite law firms in the country.

She met Tina Rutnik, a young litigator who was enthusiastic about squash, tennis and Hillary Clinton. Sewell describes the woman as having “a lot of balls.” They formed a fast friendship and Sewell joined her new pal as she hosted a young women lawyers event for Clinton at the Russian Tea Room. It was Sewell’s first political contribution.

But both women eventually made their way back to their homes in Alabama and Upstate New York and lost touch. But one fall day, Sewell’s secretary announced a call: “There’s a Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand on the line.”

They chatted, with Sewell confused about why the woman on the other line was talking her up as a possible female congressional recruit while on speakerphone with other female members in the room.

Then Gillibrand took the call off speakerphone and asked, “Terri, you don’t know who this is, do you?”

“Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand … ” Sewell responded.

The rest of the exchange went something like this.

“Terri! It’s Tina!”

“Tina Rutnik? You’re in Congress? Your name is Kirsten? Who is Gillibrand?!”

Sewell shouts for emphasis as she retells the moment from six years ago.

Both Gillibrand and Rice personally donated to Sewell’s campaign, but Rice, then serving as ambassador to the United Nations, was limited because of her role in the executive branch.

As for Gillibrand, the pair often team up for legislation. “We have a certain innate trust for each other,” Gillibrand said. “We know where we both came from. I have a certain level of confidence in her that she knows what she’s talking about.”

Career

After graduation, Terri Sewell served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Chief Judge U.W. Clemon, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Alabama, in Birmingham. She began her legal career at the prestigious law firm of Davis, Polk & Wardwell in New York City, where she was a successful securities lawyer for more than a decade. Upon returning home to Alabama in 2004, she "has made a significant impact both professionally and through her community activities."

Prior to her election to Congress, Sewell was a partner in the Birmingham law office of Maynard, Cooper & Gale, P.C. where she distinguished herself as one of the only black public finance lawyers in the State of Alabama. Her clients included, among others, City of Selma, Dallas County Water Authority, Alabama State University, Stillman College, Jefferson State and Wallace State-Hanceville.

Pro-Hamas 'Ceasefire' Letter by Troy Carter

Birmingham DSA Retweets X Post referencing Troy Carter's Pro-Hamas Ceasefire Letter Dec 2, 2023

On December 1, 2023, Representative Troy Carter wrote a letter signed by ten members of congress demanding that Joe Biden use his "immense influence" to convince Israel stop their campaign against the terror organization Hamas in the wake of the terror attack on October 7, 2023. The letter mentioned the goal of a "two-state solution" three times. "We urge you to use your immense influence and the full power of your office to continue negotiations and extend the bilateral pause beyond tomorrow so that both sides can build towards a bilateral ceasefire and, ultimately, a two-state solution." The letter called for a euphamistically named "ceasefire" mirroring the Ceasefire Now Resolution introduced in the House on October 16, 2023 and initiated by Cori Bush, Rashida Tlaib, Summer Lee, and Delia Ramirez:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Troy A. Carter, Sr. (D-LA) led 10 Members of Congress in sending a letter to President Biden, calling for him to support a bilateral ceasefire in the ongoing Middle East conflict.

Rep. Carter was joined in sending the letter by Representatives Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Nikema Williams (D-GA), Valerie P. Foushee (D-NC), Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. (D-GA), Donald M. Payne, Jr. (D-NJ), André Carson (D-IN), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Terri A. Sewell (D-AL), and Henry C. “Hank” Johnson, Jr. (D-GA).

Birmingham Democratic Socialists of America reposted reference to Troy Carter's letter on December 2, 2023.

Congress

In 2012, Congresswoman Sewell sat on the House Committee on Agriculture as well as the House Committee on Science, Space & Technology. She is also served as the Democratic Freshman Class President and as both a Regional and Senior Whip.

In 2014, Sewell sits on the House Committee on Financial Services, serving on the subcommittees of Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises and Domestic and International Monetary Policy and Trade. She is also sitting on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, while serving on the subcommittee of Technical and Tactical Intelligence (T&T). She is a also a member in good standing with the Congressional Black Caucus and the New Democrat Coalition. Congresswoman Sewell was selected by Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer to serve as one of his Chief Deputy Whips for the Democratic Party in the 113th Congress.

New Member of the Progressive Caucus After 2010 Elections?

According to David Dayden writing on the leftist blog FireDogLake: "What about the ones who won? Democrats picked up three seats from Republicans, making good on some prior anomalies and realigning correctly. Colleen Hanabusa (HI-01), Cedric Richmond (LA-02) and John Carney (DE-AL) all won. Of those, I would say Hanabusa and Richmond will join the Progressive Caucus. In AL-07, Terri Sewell replaced Artur Davis. She’s a lot more progressive than he ever was, and she will likely join the caucus. David Cicilline (RI-01), the replacement for Patrick Kennedy and another openly gay member of Congress, is likely to join (Patrick Kennedy never did). The race that a progressive lost in a primary, Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (MI-13), was over ethical issues, and she’ll be replaced by Hansen Clarke, likely to join the caucus.

Tenure

Since taking office, Sewell has voted with her party 91% of the time and she is an avid supporter of President Obama's policies. Sewell has established herself as a loyal Democrat and Progressive with a focus on job creation. Her viewpoint is redistributionist in nature.

Taxation

Sewell supported President Obama's plan to extend tax cuts for low and middle-income Americans, but would not take a stance on taxation for high-income Americans. In response to Obama's Framework for Business Tax Reform, Sewell said: "I applaud the President for outlining a bold framework for reforming the U.S. business tax system."

Terri Sewell has also criticized Presidential nominee Mitt Romney's tax returns and effective tax rates, saying "… It should be about shared responsibility. I think that something is fundamentally wrong if a person of his great wealth is only paying 13.9 percent effective tax rate and most of Americans are paying 28, 30 percent and they make far less.”

Foreign Policy

Sewell supported Obama's decisions regarding Afghanistan, citing "trust" for his policies. She also was part of a bi-partisan delegation to accompany Nancy Pelosi on a 2-day trip to Afghanistan in May 2012. While there, they spent time "with American service-members and meeting local officials to discuss security and women’s issues."

Congressional Black Caucus

Terri Sewell is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus for the 113th Congress.

ARA endorsement

Alliance for Retired Americans endorsed Terri Sewell in 2012.

Working with the SPLC

March 23, 2021. With voting rights under attack across the country, the Alabama congresswoman at the center of efforts to restore critically needed ballot protections recently laid out a confident roadmap for action on legislation that would implement federal oversight of elections in some states.

Speaking at a briefing hosted virtually by the Southern Poverty Law Center to mark the launch of its landmark report on voter suppression and the impact of the pandemic on voting across the Deep South in 2020, U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Alabama, predicted that HR 4, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, could come to a vote in September. Sewell said she believes the Senate will take whatever action is needed to ensure its passage.

The comprehensive SPLC report, “Overcoming the Unprecedented: Southern Voters’ Battle Against Voter Suppression, Intimidation, and a Virus,” provides clear evidence of the need for congressional action, Sewell said at the March 18 briefing. She pledged to work with the SPLC, Fair Fight Action, and other organizations across the South that have been instrumental in battling for voting rights in communities and in the courts.

“We are seeing state legislatures prove the point that federal oversight is still needed,” Sewell said at the briefing, praising the SPLC report for detailing so thoroughly the urgency of congressional action.

“We have bad actors. There are certain states that are just not going to follow the rules,” Sewell said. “Something so fundamental as the right to vote, yes, it resides with the states, but the states have shown themselves not to be great guardians of that right.”

The report is being released at a key juncture. Since the 2020 election, legislation designed to suppress the vote has swept the country, adding force to a dark wave of such laws passed over the past decade. As of March, more than 250 bills restricting the vote in the name of tackling election fraud were pending in 43 states, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Courts have found no evidence of systemic voter fraud during the 2020 election cycle.

Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the SPLC and the SPLC Action Fund, said at the briefing that the effort to cast the recent wave of proposed restrictions on voting as a way of preventing fraud is “a dangerous, deadly lie.”

“The reality is that these bills are being introduced for one reason only,” Huang said. “To prevent voters of color, young voters and members of other historically disenfranchised communities from maximizing their political voices and power.”

“That,” Huang said, “is the exact opposite policy reaction to what communities here in the Deep South need following the 2020 election cycle.”

In contrast, the bill introduced by Sewell, along with companion legislation, H R 1, the For the People Act, which passed the House this month, provide real policy solutions, Huang said. H R 4 would restore key provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act gutted in 2013 by developing a process to determine which states must pre-clear election changes to voting systems and practices with the U.S. Department of Justice. It would also mandate nationwide pre-clearance of known discriminatory practices, including the creation of at-large districts, inadequate multilingual voting materials and cuts to polling places.

A version of the legislation sponsored by Sewell, whose Alabama district includes Selma’s infamous Edmund Pettus Bridge, passed the House of Representatives in 2019. But today, with Democratic majorities in both chambers, prospects for making the bill law are far stronger than they were two years ago.

The SPLC report provides powerful justification for legislative action. In Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida – states with long histories of voter suppression – the report found that significant barriers had been erected by local and state officials in recent years against Black voters, high-risk voters and voters with disabilities. The majority of the obstacles to voting were implemented after the Supreme Court struck down a key requirement of the Voting Rights Act that required jurisdictions with long histories of voter suppression to receive approval from the Department of Justice before implementing new voting laws and procedures.

“We recognized that the 2020 election and the 2021 runoff were really happening in the middle of a perfect storm,” Nancy Abudu, deputy legal director for the SPLC and SPLC Action Fund, said at the briefing, explaining the urgency of the report.

“We not only were dealing with an unprecedented heath pandemic ... but we were dealing with a time of severe racial unrest and discontent,” Abudu said. “... We had a severe, and continue to face a political divide, often trumpeted by our former President Trump, and we were in a situation where we did not have the protections of Section Five of the Voting Rights Act, which had for decades provided the necessary protections for communities of color and other politically vulnerable populations from regressive voting practices and procedures that in many ways were designed to limit, deny or definitely hinder their access to the ballot box.”

Sewell Speaks Out Against Voter Suppression

May 13, 2019 Press Release The House Administration Subcommittee on Elections held a field hearing Monday to examine voting rights and elections systems in Alabama.

The hearing is one in a series the House committee is holding around the country to create a public record of voter suppression and the need for federal pre-clearance enforcement. Rep. Terri Sewell (AL-07) who introduced legislation earlier this year to restore the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by developing a modern-day formula to determine which states must pre-clear election changes with the Department of Justice, spoke at length about the impact of the 2013 Supreme Court Shelby County v. Holder decision on voting rights in America.

“We need federal oversight in the state of Alabama,” Sewell said. “You learned today that Alabama has a more restrictive voter ID law now than it did before the Shelby v. Holder case. You learned today that the problem disproportionately affects minorities, rural communities, the elderly and the disabled. … the cost of freedom, we know, is never free. It is paid by those who have fought for this right that we have and for us to sit where we sit in Congress to do the right thing.”

“Alabama has closed polling places, enacted a strict voter ID law, been slow to restore the rights of previously incarcerated citizens, attempted to close DMV offices that issue the valid IDs in predominantly-minority areas and more,” said Elections Subcommittee Chairwoman Rep. Marcia Fudge (OH-11). “The greatest democracy in the world must not regress. We must recognize our faults and continue to move forward; we must progress.”

Jenny Carroll, Chair of the Alabama State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights: “The days of a sheriff standing in the doorway of the polling place may be a thing of the past, but current voting regulations may produce the same effect on minority and poor populations in our state.

Benard Simelton, President of Alabama NAACP: “When the SCOTUS handed down its decision in 2013 in the Shelby v. Holder case, Alabama legislators worked extremely hard to ensure that it is more difficult to vote and register to vote. .”

Voting rights attorney James Blacksher: “Immediately after Shelby County v. Holder was handed down Alabama proceeded to implement and enact new racially discriminatory restrictions on the ability of its citizens to register and vote, including a photo ID law, closure of driver license offices in the Black Belt, and a request for authorization to require proof of citizenship in the federal voter registration form. At least 66 polling places have been closed, and the City of Evergreen in Conecuh County has been bailed in under Section 3c of the VRA following litigation challenging a number of discriminatory voting practices.”

Nancy Abudu, Deputy Legal Director, Voting Rights, Southern Poverty Law Center: “We see that as a result of this voter ID law, people continue to be disparately impacted, and those individuals, by coincidence, happen to be voters of color and low-income individuals, which results in depressing voter participation in the state.”

Scott Douglas, Executive Director, Greater Birmingham Ministries: “Money is obviously a burden, by definition, for low-income people. Even obtaining the ‘free’ state-issued photo ID requires people to draw on scarce funds to compile the underlying documents. The list of accepted documents required to obtain a voter ID card is limited, and includes, for example, a birth certificate, hospital record, census record, military record, Medicare or Medicaid document, social security document, certificate of citizenship, or official school record or transcript. Many of these must be requested from a government agency and may include a fee. … Alabama’s photo ID law is the new poll tax, but the reason for its existence is the same as the old one.”

Ernest Montgomery, City of Calera City Council member: “Our government must commit to assuring that every citizen be included, every barrier destroyed, every election, from our local schools all the way to our federal elections, be fair. I hope our elected leaders in Washington, D.C. can come up with some solution to protect every person’s right to vote by some formula or preclearance. For we all know, it has been said that one ounce of prevention is more valuable than a pound of cure.”

Isabel Rubio, Executive Director, Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama: “The legislation that we have seen, the attitudes and the environment here [in Alabama] is explicitly geared at continuing to oppress, marginalize and further alienate people who want to be included in our community and who make really important contributions every day.”

Medicaid expansion

On December 10 2013, Alabama's 7th District Congresswoman Terri Sewell released a press release "Statement from Congresswoman Terri A. Sewell Urging the State of Alabama to Expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act".

We are delighted that she has joined with Progressive Democrats of America, Greater Birmingham Ministries, and the Birmingham Metro Chapter of the NAACP to urge Governor Bentley to accept federal Medicaid funds and has herewith shown her convictions on this issue.

Radical staffer

In 2020 Kristen Armellini was a Communications & Media Fellow at Rep. Terri Sewell since August 2020. Formerly worked for Jared Huffman.

PDA contact

In 2013 Progressive Democrats of America assigned activists to deliver their material to almost every US Congressman and Senator, Tracey Cavadal and later Daniel Turner of the Tuscaloosa Democratic Socialists of America Organizing Committee, was assigned as the contact for Rep. Sewell.

Nelson Mandela's funeral

In December 2013, the following Democratic legislators traveled to South Africa to attended Nelson Mandela's funeral Democrats Dels. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C.) and Donna Christensen (V.I.); and Democratic Reps. Marcia Fudge, John Conyers (Mich.), Charles Rangel (N.Y.), John Lewis, Jim McDermott (Wash.), Maxine Waters (Calif.), Bobby Scott (Va.), Mel Watt (N.C.), Sheila Jackson-Lee (Tex.), Elijah Cummings (Md.), Greg Meeks (N.Y.), Barbara Lee (Calif.), G.K. Butterfield (N.C.), Gene Green (Tex.), Gwen Moore (Wis.), Yvette Clarke (N.Y.), Karen Bass (Calif.), Joyce Beatty (Ohio) and Terri Sewell (Ala.).

2016 Congressional Cuba invitation

Havana, December 20 2016 a visiting delegation from the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus met in Havana with members of the Cuban Parliament's Foreign relations Commission.

The delegation, made up of four U.S. congresspeople, is being headed by U.S. Representative Barbara Lee, a Democrat from California.

The U.S. visitors were also received by the Director for the United States at the Cuban Foreign Ministry Josefina Vidal.

The trip was sponsored and paid for by the Washington Office on Latin America.

Invitees were reps Barbara Lee, Gwen Moore, Terri Sewell, G.K. Butterfield, Stacey Plaskett and Hank Johnson.

Hank Johnson and Barbara Lee definitely attended.

2015 Cuba visit

Nov 10, 2015 Press Release Congresswoman Terri Sewell is joining U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on a Congressional delegation to Cuba to discuss opportunities to expand agricultural trade.

"Access to foreign markets and fair trade policies that benefit American workers are necessary components that will help Alabama exporters to continue to thrive and spur new job creation. President Obama took historic steps to chart a new course for U.S.-Cuba relations when he restored diplomatic relations between our two countries. This will undoubtedly serve as a catalyst for increased trade and investment opportunities in Cuba for Alabama businesses, especially those in our agriculture sector."

Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Representative Suzan DelBene of Washington, and Representative Kurt Schrader of Oregon are participating in the Cuba trip. The Congressional delegation is leaving Washington, D.C. on Wednesday and will return on Saturday.

South Korea, China, Japan Trip

Four members of Congress traveled to South Korea, Japan and China in September of 2013, during a summer recess, Congressional sources have reported.

They were Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Reps. Grace Meng (D-NY), Terri Sewell (D-AL) and Dan Benishek, a Republican from Michigan.

"All of them are symbolic figures in the 113th Congress in terms of representing minority groups," a source said. "Also, they have a good understanding on Korea."

Gillibrand is said to have the potential to become a political star like Hillary Clinton, one of her close associates.

Hirono, a Buddhist born in Japan, is the first Asian-American woman elected to the U.S. Senate.

Meng, a Chinese-American, is the first Asian-American from New York to be elected to Congress.

Sewell is the first black woman elected to Congress from Alabama.

Another source said some of them might have met with South Korean President Park Geun-hye, the country's first female president, during their visit.

Ties to the Alabama Left

Randall Woodfin connection

Randall Woodfin and Terri Sewell - January 2019.

Solidarity with Amazon workers

Eric Hall March 6 2021.

Eric Hall is with Camilla Thompson and Kelsey McClure, Nicole Watkins, Richard A. Rice, Julia Siergiey Juarez, Cory Pettway, Martez Files, Jilisa Renee, Jamie Foster, Haley Mack, Johnny Scott, Majadi Baruti, Gabriel Samuel Rob Burton, Terri Rector Michal, Stephanie Hicks, Keith O. Williams, Ralph Young, AC Poteete, Jason Kobielus

I want to recognize the local organizations on the ground everyday canvassing, connecting with folk, providing security detail, putting up signs in the community.... you may not see them in the spotlight all the time but they work like hell in support of Amazon Democratic Socialist of America Birmingham Chapter 🌹, SWEET Alabama, Black Lives Matter Birmingham, Dynamite Hill-Smithfield Community Land Trust, Alabama Working Families Party, and, of course, Our Revolution Birmingham.

Rep. Jamaal Bowman, Rep Nikema Williams, Rep. Terri Sewell, Rep. Cori Bush, Rep. Andy Levin.

Campaigning for Hillary

Terri Sewell Nov 5, 2016

US House candidate, AL-7

In Pensacola FL campaigning for Hillary!! So is AL State Senator Hank and Rose Sanders! #SelmaforHillary

Black judge

The struggle to get an African-American appointment to a now-vacant seat on the United States Circuit Court of Appeals has now gone even further. In January 2014, US House Representative Terri Sewell visited the White House with some special guests to lobby the President for a black appointment to the open seat. With her were Harvard Law School graduate and State Senator Hank Sanders and Dr. Joe Reed, a longtime leader in the Alabama Democratic Party.

In addition to the visit by the three Alabama politicos, forty one members of the United States Congressional Black Caucus signed a letter to the President asking for his close consideration of qualified African-American candidates.

“In Alabama, there are three Federal judicial districts consisting of 14 Judgeships. Two of the 14 Judgeships are vacant, resulting in 12 sitting judges with only one of those being African American,” the letter said.

“To put this issue in greater context, 64 judges have served on Alabama’s District Court bench since districts were first established in 1824. Of this number, only three have been African American. In the 33 years since President Jimmy Carter appointed the first two African American federal judges in Alabama, there have been 26 judicial appointments in the state and only one was African American; your appointment of judge Abdul Kallon in 2009.”

Alabama New South Coalition endorsed Terri Sewell

The Alabama New South Coalition endorsed Terri Sewell in the 7th Congressional District Democratic runoff, state Sen. Hank Sanders said June 22, 2010.

Sewell was the favorite by more than 2-to-1 in a Monday night meeting in Tuscaloosa of the New South delegates from around the congressional district, said Sanders.

Sewell, a Birmingham attorney with family roots in Selma, is in the July 13 runoff for the Democratic nomination with Jefferson County Commissioner Shelia Smoot. Smoot has been endorsed by the state's other black political organization, the Alabama Democratic Conference.

New South had endorsed state Rep. Earl Hilliard, Jr. of Birmingham in the primary, but he finished third.

H.Res.432

Rep. Terri Sewell [D-AL-7] (Introduced 10/12/2011) H.Res.432 — 112th Congress (2011-2012)

Honors Reverend Fred Lee Shuttlesworth (established the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, helped organize the march from Selma to Montgomery to protest voting discrimination in Alabama, and worked with the Congress of Racial Equality to organize the Freedom Rides) for his efforts in the fight against segregation and commitment to the civil rights of all people.

2014 endorsement

Dallas County Democratic Party June 2, 2014;

In 2014 Alabama New South Coalition endorsed Parker Griffith for Governor and Rep. Terri Sewell in the 7th Congressional District race.

Bingo bust

In 2014, a group called the Greene County Committee for Civil Rights is hoping their voices will be heard over the recent electronic bingo raids in Eutaw and Knoxville.

"We want attention to the crisis that is going on," Carol Zippert, a committee member said.

The group feels the state violated their voting rights by shutting down the bingo halls they voted for and passed in 2003. Attorney General Luther Strange says illegal gaming was taking place.

"That had gone too far. Our voting rights mean too much to us for folks to just say well yeah you voted for it but it doesn't mean a thing," Zippert said.

Congresswoman Terri Sewell's office requested the U.S. Attorney General's office look into possible voting rights violations. We're told over the past few weeks a representative from Attorney General Eric Holder's office spent time investigating in Greene County.

"I think its really important that the voters of Greene County who voted to have electronic bingo have their voices heard," Sewell said. "And this has been very disturbing to me that we've had repeated raids in Greene County."

The civil rights committee is calling on everyone to stand up for whats's right.

"If they have issue with us then let's go to the court of law. That's part of our democracy in this country. That's all we're asking for," Zippert said.

Federation of Southern Cooperatives

Eleanor Holmes Norton and Terri Sewell with Federation of Southern Cooperatives October 2014.

Alabama Federation of Southern Cooperatives

Terri Sewell with the Alabama Federation of Southern Cooperatives 2014.

Funding Alabama State Association of Cooperatives

Washington DC October 1, 2014, Congresswoman Terri Sewell (D-AL) announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is awarding $200,000 in grant funding to the Alabama State Association of Cooperatives. The funding will be used to expand support to cooperatives in the Black Belt and is part of the Small Socially Disadvantaged Producer Grant (SSDPG) program.

“I am pleased that the Alabama State Association of Cooperatives will receive this funding to continue its initiatives to create new opportunities for disadvantaged farmers in Alabama’s Black Belt Region,” said Rep. Sewell. “The funding will also allow the association to provide continuous support to the farming industry by serving as a means of sustainability and survival for many communities in the Black Belt.

John Zippert of the Alabama State Association of Cooperatives expressed his appreciation for the funding and highlighted the economic impact of assisting socially disadvantaged producers.

“We will work to improve marketing and business practices for participants so we can raise the income of these producers,” Zippert said. “We welcome the producers in the 7th Congressional District to contact us for assistance because the goal is to help as many people as possible.”

2011 funding

Oct 4, 2011 Press Release - Congresswoman Terri Sewell (D-AL) announced that the Alabama State Association of Rural Cooperatives was awarded $200,000 in funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for rural development projects in Sumter and Greene Counties. The Rural Development funds will be used to help disadvantaged farmers grow crops more efficiently, create jobs and provide safe and quality produce for families throughout the 7th Congressional District and the State of Alabama.

“It is great news that this funding has been awarded to help small producers in the 7th Congressional District,” said Rep. Sewell (D-AL). “Small farmers and producers play an important role in the local economies of Alabama’s rural communities. This funding gives Alabama’s economic development organizations resources to continue providing valuable assistance to create and sustain jobs throughout our state.”

“This grant will help family farmers in Greene and Sumter counties, but moving forward we hope to work beyond the black belt,” said John Zippert, Project Director. “The grant will help small farmers raise more vegetable crops, create local farmers markets, increase access to commercial markets and utilize new technologies like drift irrigation so that small farmers can increase their productivity and sustainability.”

Funds from the Small, Socially Disadvantaged Producer Grant Program are awarded competitively to cooperatives and/or associations of cooperatives. The Greene/Sumter Farmers Market Cooperative has approximately 65 small farmer-members, which is composed of more than 98 percent of socially-disadvantaged African American producers.

Ride to Revive Section 5

A group of sixty community activists from Alabama went to Washington, D. C. in six vans from Sunday to Tuesday (June 24-27, 2017) to support the Voting Rights Advancement Act (VRAA), HR 2948, introduced last week by Alabama Congresswoman Terri Sewell.

The bill was introduced on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Shelby vs, Holder decision, which gutted Sections 4 and 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

The Voting Rights Advancement Act would restore and advance Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act to include 14 states and other political subdivisions. These areas would again be placed under the protection of Section 5 and be required to have any election changes pre-cleared by the Department of Justice before they could be implanted.

The VRAA updates the criteria and establishes a nationwide coverage formula for states and political subdivisions that would be subject again to the pre-clearance provisions of Section 5. Any state that has had 15 or more voting violations in the last 25-year period; or 10 or more voting violations, at least one of the violations committed by the state itself, would be covered. A political subdivision within a state can be covered if it commits 3 or more voting violations.

The bill also carefully defines what constitutes a voting rights violation and which election changes must be submitted for pre-clearance. Congresswoman Terri Sewell said, “The VRAA is an advancement bill, it advances voting rights throughout the country. Under this bill, all eleven states that were part of the Confederacy, including Alabama, as well as other political subdivisions around the nation and on tribal lands would be covered and subject to the pre-clearance provisions.”

The VRAA would classify voting changes such as strict voter photo identification requirements, and voter registration requirements to be reviewed and possibly overturned if they were deemed to be more stringent than the requirements in Section 303b of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002.The VRAA, HR 2948, has 182 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives. They are all Democrats. And the companion legislation S.1490 in the Senate has 46 co-sponsors, also all Democrats, so far.

The grassroots voting activists visited more than 75 Congressional offices, including the membership of the House Judiciary Committee, . The grassroots activists left a package of information including factsheets on the legislation, a Senate Sketches by State Senator Hank Sanders of Selma, which deals with the “power of one vote”, and materials about the Bridge Crossing Jubilee in Selma, the first weekend in March each year.

On Tuesday morning, the Alabama group joined by other activists in Washington from the Rural Coalition, Food and Water Watch, National Family Farm Coalition and other groups had a rally and press conference on the Capitol grounds facing the Cannon House Office Building on Independence Avenue and First Street NE.

The rally had many chants supporting the revival of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act along with civil rights freedom songs. Several Congresspersons, including Terri Sewell, G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina, Marc Veasey of Dallas, Texas and Katherine Clark of Massachusetts addressed the rally. Congressman John Lewis drove by the rally on Independence Avenue and saluted the crowd. On Monday night, the group had a meeting at Howard University Law School, which was addressed by several civil rights veterans, including former D. C. Congressman Walter Fauntroy, Viola Bradford, who wrote for the Southern Courier newspaper in Montgomery, Antonio Harrison, a former Alabama State Senator, who lives and works in D. C. Professor Ardua of the Law School spoke on the need for reparations to address the continuing impact of slavery on Black people.

The Ride to Revive Section 5 was sponsored by the SOS Coalition for Justice and Democracy, Alabama New South Coalition and other local groups in Alabama.

Backing Kallon

President Barack Obama announced on February 11 2016 that he was nominating Birmingham-based U.S. District Judge Abdul Kallon to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

We made our feelings about that nomination clear in a post titled "Obama nominates Alabama federal judge Abdul Kallon to open seat on U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, proving incompetence still has its rewards."

Since the nomination Obama and U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL) have misused high-minded rhetoric in an effort to convince the public that nominating Kallon is a wise decision. The public should not fall for it.

Obama said "Judge Kallon has a long and impressive record of service and a history of handing down fair and judicious decisions.” With all due respect to the president, for whom I have voted twice, that is bulls--t.

Rep. Sewell said: "What an awesome nomination! So excited [that] President Obama nominated Judge Kallon for the US Court Of Appeals. Judge Kallon has the integrity, keen legal acumen, and judicial temperament to make him a highly qualified appellate jurist!”

Sewell also said, "This historic nomination could appoint the first African American from Alabama to this appellate bench."

New Democrat Coalition, 113th Congress

In the 113th Congress, 50 members of the House of Representatives belonged to the New Democrat Coalition, including:

• Terri Sewell (AL-07)

CAIR delegation

Birmingham, AL, 5/4/2017 - CAIR-Alabama, the state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), led a delegation of five Alabamian Muslims to meet with Congress members and staff on issues important to American Muslims and other minority communities. The delegation joined over 400 delegates from 30 states who met with some 230 elected officials and congressional staff on Monday and Tuesday, during the record-breaking third annual National Muslim Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

The largest congressional Muslim advocacy event in the country, Muslim Hill Day was sponsored by the US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), a coalition of leading national and local American Muslim organizations of which CAIR is a founding member.

Alabama’s delegation met with Representatives Terri Sewell and Gary Palmer, and with congressional staff from the offices of Senators Richard Shelby and Luther Strange and Representatives Bradley Byrne and Martha Roby. “In this divisive political climate where reaching an agreement on policy appears to be far fetched, Muslim Hill Day was more important than ever. Each person in our delegation had compelling personal stories to tell. We had constructive dialogue that achieved the real goal of having our voices heard. We hope our lawmakers felt better educated about serious issues facing our communities and policies that can assist in bettering the lives of all Alabamians," said CAIR-Alabama Executive Director Khaula Hadeed.

The delegates outlined the domestic priorities of the American Muslim community, advocating for an endorsement of all legislation pushing back against federal policies and programs wrongfully targeting Muslims. They also advocated for legislation supporting DREAMers and protecting the rights of immigrant and minority communities by ending racial and religious profiling. Specifically, delegates promoted a legislative agenda that includes support for:

• The SOLVE Act 2.0 (H.R. 724) – Declares that the Muslim Ban 2.0 is “null and void, shall have no force and effect, and may not be implemented or enforced” and prohibits federal funding of the executive order.

• Freedom of Religion Act of 2017 (H.R. 852) – Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide that non-American citizens may not be denied admission or entry to the U.S., or other immigration benefits, because of their religion, and for other purposes.

• No Religious Registry Act of 2017 (H.R. 489) – Ensures that individuals of all faiths are protected from the establishment of a national religious registry and prohibits surveilling certain U.S. persons and other individuals based on religious affiliation.

• S.248 – Blocks all federal funding for the Trump Administration’s first “Muslim Ban” executive order.

• Access to Counsel Act (S. 349) – Guarantees legal counsel to those detained on entry to the U.S., and clarifies the rights of all persons who are held or detained at a port of entry or at any detention facility overseen by CBP or ICE.

• Protect American Families Act (S. 54) – Would prohibit the creation of an immigration-related registry program that classifies people based on religion, race, age, gender, ethnicity, national origin, nationality, or citizenship.

• The Bar Removal of Individuals Who Dream and Grow our Economy Act (H.R. 496/S.128) – The BRIDGE Act would protect undocumented young people brought to the U.S. as children, commonly referred to as DREAMers, should the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program be discontinued under the Trump Administration.

• The No State Resources for Immigration Enforcement (NSRIE) Act (H.R.1446) – Would amend section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, also known as the Secure Communities Program, to prohibit state and local law enforcement officers and employees from performing the functions of an immigration officer in relation to “the investigation, apprehension, or detention” of undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

• The End Racial and Religious Profiling Act of 2017 (S. 411), and its companion bill introduced in the House, the End Racial Profiling Act (H.R. 1498) – These companion bills would effectively eliminate racial, religious, and other forms of discriminatory profiling by law enforcement.

Delegation members were David Gespass, CAIR-Alabama board chair Khaula Hadeed, CAIR-Alabama executive director Mohammad Haq, Anniston Islamic Center Imam Ali Massoud, Ream Shoreibah, CAIR-Alabama communications director.

On CAIR

“By embracing its vision and mission, the Council on American-Islamic Relations has helped to strengthen American society and promote our nation’s highest ideals.”

Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) (October 2017)

Backing Doug Jones

Doug Jones, Terri Sewell, Cory Booker

Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell joined Alabama Senate candidate Doug Jones December 10, 2017 at an historic Selma church as part of a home-stretch push for Tuesday's election.

The Jones campaign made another stop in Montgomery, where U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, spoke to a crowd of more than 100 people at Alabama State University.

Booker, appearing with Jones and Sewell, talked about the plight of Alabama's poorest counties and quoted Martin Luther King, Jr.

"When it comes to the long hard march toward justice, nothing is given," Booker said. "King used to say that change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability. It has to be carried in on the backs of good folk. The opposite of justice is not injustice, it is indifference, it is inaction."

In Selma, Jones, Patrick, Sewell and Selma Mayor Darrio Melton appeared outside the Brown Chapel AME Church, where civil rights marchers gathered in 1965 to begin the trek across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday.

U.S. Senator Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, was scheduled to appear with Jones that afternoon at Alabama State University.

“From Birmingham to Broward; Black Women Rise Up!”

On Sunday, February 25th 2018, New Florida Majority climate justice organizer Nancy Metayer joined a Black History Month panel discussion hosted by Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz at the Cultural Community Center in Hallandale Beach. The BHM event, “From Birmingham to Broward; Black Women Rise Up!” centered the stories of black women community leaders and the role that Black women have played and continue to play in shaping our political landscape.

Nancy spoke about the way that climate issues impact communities of color. “Climate issues impact every part of our lives from the water we drink to the air that we breathe. It’s important to connect climate issues to everyday life because it will not only impact our generation but also generations to come,” said Metayer.

Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz opened the event by honoring the Black women in the room including: Dania Beach Mayor Tamara James, the first African-American woman Mayor of Dania Beach – Bobbie Grace, Lauderdale Lakes Mayor Hazelle P. Rogers and members of the all African-American woman commission of Lauderdale Lakes.

The discussion kicked off with a Q&A session with Alabama Congresswoman Terri Sewell.

Sewell also voiced the need for people in positions of power to use their influence to break down barriers for others. “It’s not enough to be the first this and the first that, it’s about breaking down the doors so that others can come in behind me.”

The event ended with a short panel discussion led by Rep. Wasserman Schultz where Nancy joined Dania Beach Mayor Tamara James, Lauderdale Lakes Mayor Hazelle P. Rogers and Rep. Terri Sewell in a conversation about issues that impact Black communities. For Nancy, the opportunity to join these trailblazers on a panel was an honor that she’ll never forget. “It was beautiful to see unapologetically black women on stage in the powerful roles that they play. Young girls will look at them and say: I can do that too.”

Staff

As of August 2017;

Washington, D.C. Office

• Cachavious English-Legislative Director
• Chris MacKenzie-Press Secretar
• Perry Hamilton-Scheduler
• Hillary Beard-Legislative Assistant
• Rob Nuttall-Legislative Assistant
• Scott Harris -Staff Assistant/Legislative Correspondent

Birmingham, Alabama

• Chasseny Lewis-District Director
• Oscar Berry-Deputy District Director/Outreach Coordinator
• Derrick Richardson-District Press Secretary
• Kaia Greene-Grants Coordinator/Constituent Services Representative
• Alberto Castillo-Constituent Services Representative

Montgomery, Alabama

• Melinda Williams–Constituent Services Manager/Outreach Coordinator
• Shanna King-Constituent Services Representative

Selma, Alabama

• Dianna Johnson–Constituent Services Representativ
• Kennard Randolph-Outreach Coordinator/Constituent Services Representative

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

• Reba Love-Constituent Services Representative

References

Template:Reflist