Mfume was born as Frizzell Gerald Gray in Baltimore, Maryland, on October 24, 1948, the eldest of four. His father, a truck driver, abandoned his family in Gray's youth. Upon the death of his mother, Mfume dropped out of high school at sixteen to begin working as many as three jobs at a time to support his three sisters. He also began hanging around street corners, including with gang members. In his biography, he reports that he "was locked up a couple of times on suspicion of theft because happened to be black and happened to be young." Speculation as to the degree of his entanglement with the law has varied, especially as he later came into prominence. He became father to five children with several different women during his difficult teenage years. He has since adopted one child as well. At age 23, Gray returned to his studies and obtained his GED. Then, he was hired by Operation Champ. Often working 40 to 46 hours per week at various Baltimore city Teen Centers while simultaneously a full-time student at Baltimore City Community College, where he served as the head of its Black Students Union and the editor of the school newspaper. He went on to attend Morgan State University, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1976. He would go on to earn a Master of Liberal Arts degree in 1984 at Johns Hopkins University. In the early 1970s, to reflect his African heritage, he changed his name to Kweisi Mfume, comprising words of Akan and Swahili origin.
Early career
In 1978, Mfume was elected to the Baltimore City Council, where he opposed mayorWilliam Donald Schaefer, whom he accused of ignoring the poor neighborhoods of the city. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1986. Representing for five terms, Mfume made himself known as a Democrat with an apparent balance between strong progressive ideologies and a capacity for practical compromise, representing a district that included both West Baltimore and suburban and rural communities, though his primary goal was an increase in federal aid to American inner cities. In his fourth term he was made chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. In February 1996, Mfume left the House to accept the presidency of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, stating that he could do more to improve American civil rights there than in the Congress. He reformed the association's finances to pay off its considerable debt while pursuing the cause of civil rights advancement for African Americans. Though many in Baltimore wanted Mfume to run for mayor in the 1999 election, Mfume stayed with the NAACP. Mfume served in this position for nine years before stepping down in 2004 after an internal investigation alleged that he had sexually harassed female subordinates. Mfume acknowledged dating an NAACP employee. The NAACP reportedly paid out $100,000 to settle Mfume's alleged improprieties.
2006 U.S. Senate campaign
On March 14, 2005, Mfume announced that he would seek the U.S. Senate seat of incumbent Paul Sarbanes, following the announcement by Sarbanes that he would not run for re-election in 2006. Multiple candidates ran for the Democratic nomination. The Democratic primary for this seat was held on September 12, 2006, and Mfume lost the race to U.S. Representative Ben Cardin. In the wake of his primary defeat, Mfume was believed to be considering running for mayor of Baltimore in 2007, though he had not publicly expressed interest in such a run. On November 13, 2006, Mfume told a Baltimore-area radio station that "I don't have any plans to run for mayor. She 's worked for and deserves an opportunity to lead.... I want her to succeed. I want the city to be united. I think at this point we owe her at least the opportunity to try to lead it." In late 2010, he was again rumored to be considering a run in the 2011 Baltimore mayoral election. On May 9, 2013, Mfume was named chair of the board of regents of his alma mater, Morgan State University. He assumed the position of July 1, 2013, succeeding the interim chair Martin Resnick.
On November 4, 2019, Mfume announced his candidacy for the special election for his old congressional seat to fill the vacancy created by the death of his successor, Elijah Cummings, less than three weeks prior. On February 4, 2020, Mfume won the Democratic nomination for his former seat, defeating Cummings's widow by a landslide. He easily defeated Republican candidate Kimberly Klacik in the general election on April 28, 2020 and was sworn in on May 5, 2020. He also is running for re-election in the November 2020 race.|224x224px
Committee Assignments
After his successful election to Congress, House SpeakerNancy Pelosi announced, that Mfume would serve on the following committees for the remainder of the 116th Congress:
Mfume is a member of the Prince Hall Freemasons and Omega Psi Phi fraternity. On May 17, 2005, Mfume apologized for having had sex with an NAACP staffer, an organization he had led at the time of the affair.
