ST. LOUIS – William Lacy “Bill” Clay Sr., a civil rights leader and Missouri’s first African-American Congressman, has died at the age of 94.
Clay died Wednesday surrounded by family, according to FOX 2’s news partners at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Clay served Missouri’s 1st Congressional District with the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat from 1969-2001. The seat represents St. Louis City and parts of north St. Louis County.
Clay is largely remembered as an advocate for environmentalism, labor issues, and social justice. He supported the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, spent two decades revising the Hatch Act to expand federal workers’ political rights, consistently fought to raise the minimum wage and helped secure increased funding for historically Black colleges…