Longtime Alabama politician Priscilla Dunn dies

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ( WIAT ) — A longtime Alabama representative and senator has died.

Priscilla Dunn, who represented Jefferson County in both the Alabama House of Representatives and the Alabama Senate for 24 years, died following an unspecified illness, U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell confirmed Tuesday. She was 80.

“She was a grand dame whose footsteps we Black women elected officials were blessed to have followed,” Sewell said in a statement posted on Facebook.

Dunn, a teacher who had served as the homeless education coordinator for Bessemer City Schools, first got into politics in 1998, when she was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives. In 2009, she ran for the District 19 seat in the Alabama Senate, which she won. In 2021, Dunn decided to not run for re-election and left office the following year.

During her time in the Senate, Dunn worked on different committees, such as the finance and taxation general fund, fiscal responsibility and economic development, governmental affairs and county and municipal government.

No funeral arrangements have been announced.

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