James Abourezk

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James George Abourezk ( AB-ur-esk; February 24, 1931 – February 24, 2023) was an American attorney and politician from South Dakota. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in both chambers of the United States Congress for one term each, and was the first Arab to serve in the U.S. Senate. After he left Congress, he founded the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) in 1980 with the goal of counteracting anti-Arab racism in the country. Abourezk served in the United States Navy during the Korean War. He represented South Dakota in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1971 to 1973 and in the U.S. Senate from 1973 to 1979. He was the primary author of the Indian Child Welfare Act, which was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1978 to help preserve the families and culture of Native Americans. As a federal law, the Indian Child Welfare Act gives Native tribal governments exclusive jurisdiction over children who reside on or are domiciled on an Indian reservation; and it gives them concurrent, but presumptive jurisdiction over foster care placement proceedings for children who do not live on a Native reservation. The year prior, Abourezk successfully introduced the American Indian Religious Freedom Act in the Senate. Abourezk was a critic of United States foreign policy in the Middle East, particularly with regard to the Arab–Israeli conflict. Under his leadership, the ADC became especially active following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent Gulf War, during which he became concerned about the rising rate of targeted hate crimes against Arabs and also against people mistaken for Arabs.