Barbara Lee- 1st woman to represent the 9th district and 13th district Congressional District

Barbara Jean Lee is the U.S. Representative for California's 13th congressional district, serving East Bay voters from 1998 to 2013 during a time when the region was designated California's 9th congressional district. She is a member of the Democratic Party. She was the 1st woman to represent the 9th district and is also the 1st woman to represent the 13th district. Lee was the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and was the Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Lee is notable as the only member of either house of Congress to vote against the authorization of use of force following the September 11, 2001 attacks. This made her a hero among many in the anti-war movement. Lee has been a vocal critic of the war in Iraq and supports legislation creating a Department of Peace.           Lee was born Barbara Jean Tutt in El Paso, Texas, the daughter of Mildred Adaire  and Garvin Alexander Tutt, a Lieutenant Colonel. She moved from Texas to California in 1960 with her military family parents, and attended San Fernando High School in San Fernando, California. Lee was educated at Mills College, and received an MSW from the University of California, Berkeley in 1975. While a student at Mills College, she was a volunteer at the Oakland chapter of the Black Panther Party's Community Learning Center and worked on Panther co-founder Bobby Seale's 1973 Oakland mayoral campaign. Lee was a staff member for U.S. Representative Ron Dellums and a member of the California State Assembly and the California State Senate before entering the House.  In 2003, she was recognized as a Woman of Peace at the Global Exchange Human Rights Awards in San Francisco with Bianca Jagger, Arundhati Roy and Kathy Kelly. In 2010, Lee took the food stamp challenge and also appeared in the documentary film Food Stamped.