"When you think you are doing the right thing, you just stand.”

The Honorable Barbara Jean Lee is a trailblazing leader with few peers. She was the first Black woman elected to represent Northern California in the State Assembly, State Senate, and U.S. Congress. Now, she is preparing to serve the people in yet another way — as the 52nd mayor of Oakland. Elected in April, she campaigned on a platform designed to unify the city around public safety, accountability, and accessible and affordable housing. She'll be inaugurated in June. 

For an extraordinary life spent bringing people together to uplift every community, Howard will award Lee an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree at its May 2025 Commencement. She will receive her degree alongside her niece, who also graduates from Howard on that day. 

Over the course of her career, Lee has worn many hats. As a small business owner of a facilities management company with over 400 employees, she helped lead economic growth in her community and provided her staff with salaries which sustained their families, including employees who were formally incarcerated. In Congress, she chaired the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which fights for socioeconomic equity, and the fabled Congressional Black Caucus, which has been at the forefront of civil and human rights legislation and policy. She’s led the fight for LGBTQ+ equity, passionately advocated against the death penalty, traveled around the globe on behalf of refugees, and worked to mitigate the impact of climate change and protect the environment. In Congress, she was a member of the powerful House Committee on Appropriations, which allocates taxpayer dollars to federal agencies, and was the first person of color to chair the subcommittee that funded foreign operations. As one of the so-called “Cardinals” on the committee, she set up a Poverty Tax Force, directed money to address health disparities, and made a point to ensure that federal dollars were distributed equitably and made their way to traditionally underserved and under-resourced communities, including historically Black college and universities.

In her career of global consequence, perhaps her most wide-ranging and globally recognized achievement was the passage of President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), for which Lee served as the co-author and lead sponsor. Passed by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2003, the program has invested over $110 billion to fight HIV/AIDS in more than 50 countries, according to the U.S. State Department. Through the program, scores of antiretroviral drugs have been distributed which stop the HIV virus from replicating, boost the immune system, and stop infections. People from vulnerable populations participate in prevention programs and still more receive testing that prevents those infected from spreading the disease to others. To date, an estimated 26 million lives have been saved around the planet. 

“As a public servant, when you can step in the gap, you do so,” she said. “I went to President Bush and told him that people were dying, including Black people, of HIV and AIDS. We had to do something. To know that I, along with others, have saved 25 million lives is very rewarding and very uplifting.”

If there are elected officials who personify courage, few could deny Lee a place in their ranks. The nation was in an uproar in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks during which planes crashed into the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Every member of the United States Congress, both in the House of Representatives and the Senate, voted to for the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force — all but Lee, then a member of the House representing the Oakland area of California. Since 2001, that authorization has been used by Presidents Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden as justification for military action all over the world in the name of terrorism prevention without additional authorization from Congress. Since 2001, it has been decried by members of both parties as a blank check for the president to wage war and an abdication of Congress’s responsibility to declare war, which is precisely what Lee predicted when she voted against it. Even when it seemed that the entire nation was lined up on one side of the issue in a quest for retribution, Lee stood alone on a principle many now believe was prescient. Nevertheless, her life was threatened, and she was one of few members of Congress who had to be assigned a security detail. It wasn’t the first time — or the last — Lee took a stand for what she believed was right. 

“I felt like I did the right thing,” she said. “It was an overly broad authorization — 60 words that set the stage for forever wars. It’s been used over 40 times in some 20 countries, and even President Obama used that authorization to go to war. It was wrong and it was unconstitutional. I’m not a pacificist, but three days after the horrific events of September 11, there was no way that Congress should have given that broad authority to President Bush and subsequent presidents.” 

“It was a tough vote, she added. “But when you think you are doing the right thing, you just stand.”

Lee’s life is a testament to perseverance, sacrifice, fearlessness and determination. She is a survivor of domestic violence. She raised two sons as a single mom while earning her bachelor's degree in psychology and her master’s degree in social work. She worked with Black Panther founders Huey Newton and Bobby Seal to provide food and education to children in Oakland. From her birth in a segregated hospital to the halls of Congress and now City Hall, Lee has focused her attention on ensuring that all people can participate in prosperity. No one could blame her if she had simply decided to bow out of public life after she retired from Congress, but quitting is just not in her DNA. It’s a lesson ingrained in her as far back as her Catholic school education. 

“The Sisters of Loretto in El Paso, Texas taught me at St. Josephs, and their framework for teaching was, ‘go where the need is the greatest,’” she said. “I guess that stuck with me. They taught the catechism of religion from a construct of ‘you must work for peace and justice.’”

Lee’s honorary doctorate from Howard will give her “street credibility” within her family, she joked, as she did not graduate from an HBCU but her mother and aunts did. Her grandson graduated from Howard a few years ago. Her experiences have taught her much, and now she is prepared to share her wisdom with Howard’s graduates, especially those who aspire to pursue careers in public service.

“I would tell them to not just jump into being an elected official,” she said. “Prove yourself, work in your community, make the change that is necessary regardless of what your passion is. Do the work and you will get that recognition. If public service is in your spirit, then do the work, and ‘by their deeds shall thee know them.’”

“Listen to God’s whispers.”

Just as important, as students embark on the next chapter of their adult life, she wants them to be open to new possibilities and not be afraid to go where life takes them. Her educational background trained her to be a psychotherapist. She became a business owner, then a member of Congress, and now a mayor. The key, she said, was that she was willing to travel outside of what she thought was her prescribed path.

“Listen to God’s whispers,” she said. “Explore. When you hear and feel something that’s outside your organized way of life and your goals, be open to it and try it out, because guarantee, its God whispering to you that maybe you want to change course or try something. Don’t be so wedded to one path in life. Be open to what is coming to you.”