Barbara Lee

Talking Iraq, poverty, and getting a seat at the table with the House’s lefty conscience.

- Rebecca Traister

REPRESENTATIVE BARBARA LEE OF California had spent the morning on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, giving a speech— word for word—that she’d given 17 years ago. “Let’s just pause … and think through the implications of our actions today, so that this does not spiral out of control.”

She’d first uttered those words on the House floor back in September 2001, when she opposed the Authorization for Use of Military Force, which granted President George W. Bush—and every president who’s come after him—the authority to go to war without congressional approval. Lee was just three years into her role representing her Oakland district when she became the only member of Congress to oppose its passage.

As she sat at a table in the Rayburn room of the House a few hours after having revisited her 17-year-old oratory, Lee recalled how she’d felt back then. “It was kind of lonely, but it’s okay. Being a black woman in America, you stand out. You have to just stand your ground with what you believe in. The majority of black women do that in their daily lives all the time.”

Lee, 72, is polite and laughs often, almost shyly; she holds the eye of whomever she’s speaking to, making sure she’s being understood clearly. She is also unfailingly optimistic. As a teen in California, Lee longed to be a cheerleader, but no black girls had ever been chosen for her high school’s squad. So she approached the NAACP, which helped her integrate the team. Lee displays a photograph of herself as a cheerleader in her House office.