Millender-McDonald, Juanita, 1938-2007

<p>A fast-rising star in California politics, Juanita Millender-McDonald won her seat in the United States House of Representatives just six years after capturing her first elected office. From her position on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Millender-McDonald shaped transportation legislation and federal programs that directly affected her Los Angeles district. In 2007 she made history by becoming one of the first African-American women to chair a standing committee in Congress, the House Administration Committee.</p>

<p>Juanita Millender-McDonald was born Juanita Millender on September 7, 1938, in Birmingham, Alabama, one of five children raised by Shelly and Everlina (Dortch) Millender. After her mother, Everlina, died, Shelly Millender, a minister, moved his family to California. Juanita Millender married James McDonald Jr. on July 26, 1955, and by the time she was 26, the couple had five children. A homemaker for 15 years, Millender-McDonald returned to college, earning a BS in business administration from California’s University of Redlands in 1981. Millender-McDonald earned an MA in educational administration from California State University in Los Angeles in 1988. After teaching math and English in a public high school, she worked as an administrator in the Los Angeles unified school district—eventually directing its gender equality programs.</p>

<p>Millender-McDonald first entered politics at the local level in Los Angeles and served as a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1984, 1988, and 1992. In 1982 she worked on behalf of the unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign of longtime Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley. Afterward she worked on several local campaigns before entering and winning election for a seat on the Carson City council in 1990. She was adroit at building networks of political support during the race. The first time she asked for help from United States Representative Mervyn Malcolm Dymally, he declined, telling Millender-McDonald, “Local politics is too divisive; I don’t want to get involved.” But she was persistent. Dymally said, “She came back, this time with a delegation of friends and supporters. I said, ‘What do you want?’ She said, ‘I need your endorsement.’ I said, ‘You have it.’” Millender-McDonald became the first African-American woman elected to the council and in 1991 served as Carson City mayor pro tempore. In 1992, following the reapportionment of California state assembly districts, Millender-McDonald defeated two incumbent assemblymen whose Los Angeles-area districts had been merged. The contest broke down largely by race, and Millender-McDonald prevailed when the incumbents split the white vote; she went on to serve in the California state assembly until 1996. Within her first year in the assembly, she chaired two panels: the insurance committee and the revenue and taxation committee. From those posts, she sponsored a major transportation bill to create the Alameda Corridor, a national transportation artery designed to improve railroad and highway access to the San Pedro Bay Ports, which constitute one of the nation’s largest shipping complexes.</p>

<p>Juanita Millender-McDonald (September 7, 1938 – April 22, 2007) was an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1996 until her death in 2007, representing California's 37th congressional district, which includes most of South Central Los Angeles and the city of Long Beach, California. She was a member of the Democratic Party.</p>

<p>On December 19, 2006, Millender-McDonald was named Chairwoman of the House Committee on House Administration for the 110th Congress. She was the first African-American woman to chair the committee. She was also a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and of the New Democrat Coalition and was considered a front-runner for the job of Secretary of Transportation if John Kerry had been elected President in 2004.</p>

<p>Millender-McDonald was born in Birmingham, Alabama. She was educated at Los Angeles Harbor College; at the University of Redlands, from which she received a business degree; and at California State University, Los Angeles, from which she earned a masters in educational administration; and the University of Southern California, from which she completed her doctorate in public administration. She worked as a teacher, a textbook editor, and later as director of a nonprofit organization working for gender issues. She was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Millender-McDonald served as a member of the City Council of Carson, California and was a member of the California State Assembly (after beating two sitting incumbent Democrats that had been reapportioned into the same Carson based assembly district in 1992) before entering the House. She was first elected to the House in a March 1996 special election to replace Congressman Walter Tucker, who resigned due to corruption charges and was later sentenced to 27 months in prison. While she won a difficult nine-candidate primary in her first election run (fellow assembly member Willard Murray came in a close second) she did not face any serious opposition in any of her reelection campaigns.</p>

<p>Within a week of her requesting a leave of absence to deal with her illness, on April 22, 2007, Millender-McDonald died in hospice care, succumbing to colon cancer at the age of 68 at her home in Carson. She left a husband, James McDonald, Jr., and five adult children.</p>

MILLENDER-MCDONALD, Juanita, a Representative from California; born in Birmingham, Jefferson County, Ala., September 7, 1938; B.S., University of Redlands, Redlands, Calif., 1981; M.A., California State University, Los Angeles, Calif., 1988; attended University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Calif.; member of the Carson City, Calif., city council, 1990; mayor pro tempore, Carson City, Calif., 1991-1992; educator, Los Angeles Unified School District, Los Angeles, Calif.; delegate to the Democratic National Conventions, 1984, 1992, and 2000; member of the California state assembly, 1993-1996; elected as a Democrat to the One Hundred Fourth Congress by special election, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of United States Representative Walter R. Tucker III, and reelected to the six succeeding Congresses (March 26, 1996-April 21, 2007); chair, Committee on House Administration (One Hundred Tenth Congress); died on April 21, 2007, in Carson, Calif.