Shirley Weber was born on September 20, 1948 and is an American academic and politician serving as the Secretary of State of California. She was previously a member of the California State Assembly for the 79th Assembly District, which includes portions of San Diego, Chula Vista, and National City and all of Lemon Grove and La Mesa.

Before she was elected to the Assembly in 2012, Weber served on the San Diego Board of Education, and was a Professor of African-American Studies at San Diego State University. A member of the California Legislative Black Caucus, she is the first African American to be elected to the California State Legislature south of Los Angeles.

In December 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom nominated Weber to succeed Alex Padilla, who was nominated to succeed Vice-President Kamala Harris as one of California’s two senators, as California Secretary of State. Upon inauguration, Weber is the first African American person to serve as Secretary of State and the fifth to serve in a statewide position.

When Weber was three years old, she and her siblings were put on a train bound for California, from Hope, Arkansas and what they called a foreign land.  Her family owned a 100-acre farm, and it was her father’s refusal to back down from a dispute with a white farmer which led her family to leave.  Her father was also threatened by a lynch mob.  Weber has alluded that her determination comes from her father’s nurturing of the importance of education.

Weber experienced her own sort of racism just before earning her Ph.D. None of the senior professors in her department were willing to serve on her review committee, which would have prevented her from receiving her degree.  But she didn’t back down and threatened UCLA.  These are just some of the reasons why she’s become an academic, a school board member and now a legislator, always championing the causes of underdogs.