Rep. Cori Bush.Photo: Kimberly White/Getty
Missouri Rep.Cori Bushof Missouri has a story to tell — her own.
The progressive lawmaker, a member of the “Squad” in the Democratic Party along withAlexandria Ocasio-Cortezand others, is writing a book calledThe Cori Chronicles.
Bush, 45, became the first black woman to represent Missouri when she was elected to Congress in 2020. She’s a nurse and a minister who rose to prominence during the street protests in Ferguson after policeshot and killed Michael Brown. Bush lived just six minutes from where Brown was killed.
“At the time … I just felt [like], well I’m a nurse, I can go be a medic on the ground. I’m clergy, so I can go out and pray with people.” Bushtold PEOPLElast year.
She spent the next five weeks working out of a mobile crisis van alongside therapists and medical doctors to assist those who had been injured and distribute food and toiletries to those in need.
Cori Bush (center) leads demonstrators as they take to the street to protest against police brutality on June 12, 2020, in University City, Missouri.Michael B. Thomas/Getty
“At night, I would leave the area, go home and make sure my kids had their homework done, go back to the street and protest,” Bush told PEOPLE. “Even on Saturday and Sunday when I didn’t have to work, that’s where I’d be.”
Soon after she was sworn into office, Bush shared a photo of a group of lawmakers called “the Squad,” including Reps. Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
The group’s progressive politics and backstories have made them national figures as well as lightning rods among conservatives.
Last month, Bushcamped outsidethe U.S. Capitol overnight to protest the end of the eviction moratorium. “We’ve still got work to do,” Bush wrote as she documented her overnight experience alongside Omar, Pressley, Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
source: people.com
