Cori Bush is a single mother, an ordained preacher, a nurse, and an activist and organizer in her local community. At this time, she is acting in the capacity of representative for the constituents who hail from Missouri’s First Congressional District. Cori is a member of the House Oversight Committee as well as the House Judiciary Committee, where she also serves as the vice chair of the subcommittee on crime, terrorism, and homeland security in addition to being a member of that subcommittee. In addition, she is a member of the House Oversight Committee.
Cori is a strong voice for racial justice, and has been an outspoken critic of police brutality. In the wake of the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, she co-founded the Truth Telling Project, which works to document stories of police violence. She has also worked with Black Lives Matter St. Louis, an organization that formed in the aftermath of Brown’s death.
Cori is a strong voice for progressive policies that would improve the lives of working families. She has advocated for a higher minimum wage, paid family leave, and affordable child care. She also supports Medicare for All, and has called for an end to the war on drugs.
Cori Blakney Bush’s mother, Barbara Blakney, was a union meat-cutter, and her father, Errol Bush, was a local politician at the time of her birth. Cori Blakney Bush was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Her ancestors were enslaved African-Americans from South Carolina and Mississippi. Her family originated from those states. Her ancestors hail from the aforementioned states. While she and her two siblings were growing up, they lived in the Great Northern Woods, which served as their home. The wisdom that Cori’s father had learned from the great African-American men and women whose portraits covered the walls of their home was passed down to his daughter by way of the father-daughter relationship.
Cori was recognized as one of the top students while she was attending Cardinal Ritter High School in North St. Louis City. She ultimately received her diploma from that institution. Since she was a child, she had the notion that it would be amazing if she could one day become a nurse and help save the lives of people right there in her area. She thought this idea would be incredible if she could assist save the lives of people in her neighborhood.
After taking a break from her studies for a while, Cori enrolled once more at Harris-Stowe State University, which is located in St. Louis and is recognized as a historically black college or university. Her decision to attend the Lutheran School of Nursing allowed her to realize a goal that she had been working for since she was a young girl: becoming a nurse. She was also able to establish herself as a prominent figure in the religious community by acquiring her ministerial license. This enabled her to do both of these things.
Cori got her start in the working world in St. Louis, like so many other people there, by holding positions that paid the minimum wage. Because she worked as a child care provider at a neighborhood preschool, she had little choice but to eke out a living from paycheck to paycheck. She had a hard time avoiding falling into the trap of being a victim of the never-ending cycle of predatory payday loans while still being able to meet the essential needs for her life. After being assaulted by her ex-lover, Cori had no choice but to leave the home they had shared together with him.
In the year 2000, Cori gave birth to her first child, a boy, about four months sooner than she was meant to. Cori’s due date was in April. The doctors had chosen to overlook her excruciating pain. He persisted through a considerable amount of time while being assisted by a ventilator during this ordeal. The following year, Cori went through another difficult pregnancy and ultimately gave birth to a young girl. This time around, the child had health issues. Her personal experiences have made her a steadfast advocate for the health of Black moms, and those experiences have contributed to her advocacy.
Cori, her boyfriend, and both of their newborn children spent a considerable length of time without a home after the birth of their second child, which occurred shortly after the birth of their first child. She transferred her belongings while using trash bags as moving containers and mixed baby formula in fast food restaurants.
Following the shooting of Michael Brown Jr. in 2014 by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, who has since been dismissed, Congresswoman Cori spent over 400 days on the “Ferguson Frontline” organizing demonstrations for justice while still working as a nurse and a member of the church.
Cori spent the first five weeks after Mike Brown Jr.’s murder providing triage-medical treatment and aid to the neighborhood that witnessed his corpse lie uncovered for four and a half hours in the sweltering heat of a July day in St. Louis. The neighborhood had witnessed the murder of Mike Brown Jr. and had seen his body lie exposed for the duration of the day.
In the years that followed, she rose to prominence, eventually becoming the head of the protest organization known as #ExpectUS as well as a co-founder of The Truth Telling Project.
Cori, who is in the middle of her first time in office and has been a strong supporter for legislation that has led to St. Louis’s rising profile, is currently in the middle of her first term in office. Cori has been a leader in the movement to guarantee housing for all people, whether it be through the introduction of legislation to end homelessness by the year 2025, the leadership of a national movement on the steps of the United States House of Representatives calling on the CDC to extend the eviction moratorium, or the introduction of legislation to permanently implement an eviction moratorium throughout the pandemic. Cori has been at the forefront of the movement to guarantee housing for all people. Cori has been a major force in the success of each and every one of these endeavors.
She has been successful in negotiating a commitment from the EPA to clean up Coldwater Creek, bringing home federal grant money to construct safer streets and communities, and securing $700 million in COVID-19 relief for the St. Louis region under the American Rescue Plan. All of these accomplishments were made possible thanks to her efforts. Her work has been given a high priority in the attempt to address issues that are frequently affecting people who live in the St. Louis area.
Cori is an active member of Congress who has previously served on the House Oversight Committee as well as the House Judiciary Committee. She is currently serving on the House Appropriations Committee. She built a name for herself during her first term in office by making it a practice to begin each statement or question line in a hearing or on the House floor with the phrase “St. Louis and I.” This helped her stand out from other members of Congress. Because of this, she gained a great deal of recognition. She has utilized the fact that she is a member of these committees in order to push for the reform of police processes, protect the rights of protestors, and do other things that are similar to what she has been doing in this regard. In addition to her position as Vice Chair of the Majority Leader Task Force on Poverty and Opportunity, Cori was selected to serve on the well-known Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. This is a tremendous honor for her.