Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, was born October 5, 1932 in Los Angeles, California. A graduate of UCLA with a law degree from University of Southern California (USC) Gould School of Law in 1956, she was the first African American woman elected to the California State Assembly in 1966. During her legislative tenure, she focused on civil rights and juvenile issues. She chaired the Assembly Committee on Urban Development. One year before her election to the Assembly, she was appointed by Governor Edmund G. ‘Pat’ Brown, Sr. to serve on the McCone Commission to study social conditions that led to the August 1965 Watts Rebellion (also referred to as the 1965 Watts Riots). She was the first African American woman from the Golden State in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1973, and continued to break new ground as the first woman to have a child and secure maternity leave while serving in the U.S. Congress. She became the first African-American member of the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors, a position she has held on and off since 1978. Assemblywoman Burke retired from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 2008.