Since 1991, Maxine Waters has been working in Congress and currently serves as the U.S. Representative for California’s 43rd congressional district. She is considered one of the most powerful women in US politics at the moment. She has also held previously the position of chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and is presently a member.
Maxine is the most senior of the 12 black women in the US Congress and down the years, she has constantly fought to uphold the mandate handed to her. Calling out leaders and fighting policies that she feels are not right has been one of Maxine’s means of holding power accountable. We take a look at biography and other facts.
Maxine Waters’ Biography
Maxine Waters was born on the 15th of August, 1938 in St. Louis, Missouri to her parents, Remus and Velma Lee Carr Moore. She was born the fifth child of their thirteen children. By the time she was two years old, her father left the family and Maxine was raised alone by her mother.
Her full name at the time of her birth was Maxine Moore Carr. She attended Vashon High School in St. Louis, Missouri and graduated before her family made the move in 1961 to Los Angeles, California. Working first at a garment factory and then as a telephone operator, she was then hired to be an assistant with the Head Start program at Watts in 1966. Maxine later decided to enroll at California State University where she eventually graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology.
Maxine Waters has been in and around the political space of the United States for over forty years and keeps going stronger. It all began with her taking the job to work as chief deputy to City Councilman David S. Cunningham Jr. in 1973. While there, she worked on the divestment of state pension funds from businesses in South Africa operating then under apartheid. Maxine would later rise to the position of Democratic Caucus Chair for the Assembly.
In 1990, with over 79% of the popular vote and at the retirement of Augustus F. Hawkins, Waters was elected to the United States House of Representatives for California’s 29th congressional district. Reelection came consistently for Waters even as the district was renumbered as the 35th in 1992 and 43rd in 2012 and winning her seat with at least 70 percent of the vote.
Net Worth
Maxine entered into the political fray in 1973 in the state of California. Got elected to Congress for the first time in 1990. She earns a yearly salary of $170 thousand as of 2017. She has an estimated net worth in the region of $5 million.
Husband, Daughter
Maxine has been married twice in her life. The first time was to Edward Waters in 1956, a while after she was done with high school. The union with Edward was blessed with two children, a boy, and a girl, Edward and Karen Waters. They spent over fifteen years together as a couple but were divorced in 1972.
In the years that followed her divorce, Waters was silent relationship wise but she soon met Sid Williams. Williams is a former NFL linebacker who had played for the teams like the Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns, Washington Redskins and Pittsburgh Steelers. He was also once the US Ambassador to the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.
It was rumored in 2017 that Maxine intended to divorce Sid on the grounds of unfaithfulness but when posed with the question, Williams denied the allegations. The couple has remained married but has no children together.
Other Facts About Maxine Waters
All twelve of her siblings were raised by her single mother, Velma Lee Carr Moore.
At about the time Maxine was 13 years old, she worked at a whites-only restaurant in downtown St. Louis as a busgirl.
She began working in Watts for Head Start and after helping parents gain more federal funding, it inspired in her a drive to enter politics.
Waters has denied charges leveled against her for improper intervention on behalf of OneUnited Bank. A bank of which her husband, Sid Williams is a stockholder. She is said to have contacted treasury officials to help fund the troubled bank for personal gain.
Waters has taken public swipes at presidents down the years including Republican presidents George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump, and even Democratic president, Barack Obama.
