Stacey Plaskett (1966-)

U.S. Delegate to Congress from the U.S. Virgin Islands since 2015. First woman and first African American to represent the Virgin Islands in Congress. Born in Brooklyn, NY to parents from the Virgin Islands. Graduated from Georgetown University Law Center. Served as Senior Counsel in the Deputy Attorney General’s office under the Clinton administration. Her family descends from enslaved people who took the Plaskett surname from the Caribbean plantation owned by Major Joseph Plaskett in the 1800s. She carries the same surname as the California pioneers, though through radically different historical paths — one family that owned, one that was owned, now both prominent Americans.