Parren J. Mitchell, 85, a Baltimore civil rights activist who became Maryland’s first black member of Congress in 1970 and founding Congressional Black Caucus member, died May 28 of complications from pneumonia at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. He had been living in a nursing home since a series of strokes several years ago.
A former head of the Congressional Black Caucus and chairman of the House Small Business Committee, Mitchell worked for years to assure minority participation in contracts let under federal public works programs. He was an original sponsor of legislation approved in 1977 guaranteeing minority contractors a share in public works spending. He also sponsored an amendment to the 1982 Surface Transportation Assistance Act requiring that at least 10 percent of the funds provided under the law should go to small businesses owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged people.
He came to public prominence in 1968 when he helped mediate rioting that broke out in Baltimore following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis. He ran for Congress in 1968 but lost in the Democratic primary.
He ran again in 1970, defeating a veteran incumbent by just 38 votes in the primary. Considered too liberal by some House colleagues and too blunt by others, he never lost his outrage on behalf of the poor and minorities.