Alcee Hastings PHOTO COURTESY OF FACEBOOK

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The legacy of U.S. Rep. Alcee Hatings, a racial justice advocate who broke barriers in a career that spanned over 50 years, lives on.

U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a Democrat representing portions of Broward and Palm Beach counties and who succeeded Hastings following his death, sponsored legislation to rename the Post Office at 1900 W. Oakland Park Boulevard Alcee Lamaer Hastings Post Office.

The legislation was designed to honor a man who was the longest serving congressperson before he died of pancreatic cancer in 2021 at the age of 84 and accomplished many firsts.

Cherfilus-McCormick unsuccessfully challenged Hastings twice but won a special election in 2022 to fill the vacancy left following his death.

"Congressman Hastings was a tireless fighter for South Florida families, and it’s only fitting that a post office named, in his honor, be at the heart and center of our district," she said.

Cherfilus-McCormick’s legislation has drawn six co-sponsors from both Democrats and the GOP.

Among them was U.S. Rep. Mario DiazBalart, R-Miami, who became the longest serving member of the Fla. congressional delegation after Hastings’ death.

Hastings and Diaz-Balart served together in the House for more than 18 years as part of a South Fla. delegation that was long marked by cooperation between Democratic and Republican members.

Other co-sponsors of the bill to rename the Post Office for Hastings are U.S. Reps. Darren Soto, D-Orlando; Frederica Wilson, DMiami; Maria Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Miami; John Rutherford, R-Jacksonville; Kathy Castor, D-Tampa; and Maxwell Frost, D-Orlando.

Elected to Congress in 1992, Hastings served 15 terms in the House, longer than any other current member, earning the moniker the dean of the delegation.

Many of his colleagues and constituents described him as a strong liberal voice dating back to when he was a pioneering civil rights lawyer during the 1960s and 1970s in South Florida when Blacks faced inhospitable.

During his time in Congress, Hastings was a strong advocate against racial injustice and defended the rights of gay people, immigrants, women and senior citizens.

He also championed efforts for better and affordable health care and higher wages.

Hastings achieved many firsts.

He was Florida’s first Black federal judge and among three Black Floridians who reached Congress in 1992, which was the first time Fla. had Black federal lawmakers since Reconstruction.

In 1979, he was appointed by then-President Jimmy Carter to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, but in 1981, he became the first sitting federal judge to be tried on corruption charges before the House which subsequently impeached him in 1988.

The Senate convicted him the following year and removed him from the bench but didn’t ban him from running for public office again.

Renaming the post office in Oakland Park after Hastings is the second honor for him following his death.

Last year, on April 6, 2022, which marked the one-year anniversary of his death, the City of Lauderdale Lakes remaned a portion of a roadway after the pioneer, Alcee L. Hastings Parkway on N.W. 36th Street and 43rd Avenue, which is the entrance of Lauderdale Lakes City Hall