Statement from the President and First Lady on the Passing of Cassandra Quin Butts

The following statement was issued on May 27. 

To know Cassandra Butts was to know someone who made you want to be better.  And Michelle and I were fortunate enough to count her as a friend for most of our adult lives. 

Cassandra and I met as law students, and we quickly discovered a shared passion for jazz – and for public service.  It was a passion she’d chase for the rest of her life – on Capitol Hill, at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, at the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and as an advisor of mine – but above all, as a citizen, always pushing, always doing her part to advance the causes of opportunity, civil rights, development, and democracy.  Cassandra was someone who put her hands squarely on that arc of the moral universe, and never stopped doing whatever she could to bend it towards justice.

We lost her this week, at far too young an age.  But along with all her friends and family, we find comfort in the knowledge that all the good she did for so many lives on.  She made America better.  She made so many lives better, including ours.  We admired her so much.  And we will miss her deeply. 

Source: The White House, Office of the Press Secretary 

Note: Information on the legacy and life of Cassandra Quin Butts is available here.