Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, a Champion for Progressive Causes, Dies at 74

Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat from Texas who was a leading voice for racial justice and progressive causes during the three decades she served in the House, died on Friday. She was 74.

Her death was announced in a statement from her family. She said in June that she had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

“By God’s grace, I will be back at full strength soon,” she told constituents.

The Congressional Black Caucus, in a statement released late Friday, called Ms. Jackson Lee “a titan” and “a fierce advocate for social and economic justice, national and homeland security, energy independence, and children and working families.”

Ms. Jackson Lee, a former member of the Houston City Council who was elected to Congress in 1994, was an irrepressible presence from the start, relentlessly lobbying senior members for speaking time and almost always getting her way.

To critics, she would say that she was just serving her constituents.

“You have an obligation to make sure that their concerns are heard, are answered,” she said in a 1999 interview with The New York Times. “I need to make a difference. I don’t have wealth to write a check. But maybe I can be a voice arguing consistently for change.”

During her congressional career, Ms. Jackson Lee was chairwoman of the Judiciary Subcommittee for Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, and as a senior member of the House Committees on the Judiciary, Homeland Security, and Budget.