Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., recalled Cummings’ efforts to calm his native Baltimore amid violent 2015 protests following the death of a black man, Freddie Gray, in police custody. By day, Cummings was at the Capitol in the halls of power, McConnell said, but at night he returned to Baltimore to encourage unity. Let’s all go home,” McConnell recalled Cummings saying at the time. Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said Cummings was respected and revered in the caucus, “a quiet giant” whose words were heeded. Cummings is just the third African American to lie in honor at the Capitol and the first black lawmaker.

Source: Washington Post October 24, 2019 02:33 UTC