By Annie Grayer and Clare Foran, CNN Updated 12:54 PM ET, Tue April 6, 2021
Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings, a civil rights activist and the longest-serving member of Florida’s congressional delegation, has died, his chief of staff Lale M. Morrison told CNN on Tuesday. He was 84. In January 2019, he announced that he was being treated for pancreatic cancer and planned to remain in Congress during the treatment, calling it “a battle worth fighting.” Read more HERE and HERE.
According to Greg Allen, writing for NPR.org, Hastings began his career as a civil rights lawyer. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter appointed him to a U.S. District Court seat, making him Florida’s first African American federal judge. Two years later, Hastings was indicted by a federal grand jury and later convicted on conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges for soliciting a bribe. While he was acquitted of the charges in a second trial, in 1988 the House of Representatives voted to impeach Hastings for his role in the bribery scandal. He was convicted in the Senate and removed from the federal bench. In 1992, he ran and was elected to Congress. For nearly three decades he represented communities in Miami-Dade, Broward, and in later years when his district was redrawn, Palm Beach County.