LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Augustus Hawkins, the first African American from California to serve in Congress and helped form the Congressional Black Caucus, has died. He was 100.
Hawkins died Saturday at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Md., of symptoms related to old age, his niece, Susan Jefferson, said Monday.
Hawkins, a Democrat, represented South Los Angeles for more than half a century, first starting off in the state Legislature in 1935 and then getting elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1962.
Black politicians said Hawkins was an inspiration and a mentor to them.
“It was Gus Hawkins who gave us the credibility,” said Rep. Diane Watson, D-Los Angeles. “It was Gus Hawkins who gave us the ideas. . . . He has left a sterling legacy.”
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, who hold Hawkins’ former seat, said in a statement that he was “the author of some of the most significant legislation ever passed in the House . . . particularly in the areas of education and labor. He cared about poor and working people.”
Among his legislative accomplishments were sponsoring the equal employment section of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act that created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and helping create the Congressional Black Caucus in 1971.
