When I was watching the Rule's and Bylaw's meeting yesterday and listening to the commentary, most of the pundits spent time discussing the history of co-chair James Roosevelt, making much of his relationship to FDR (he's a grandson).
Little was said about the background of co-chair Alexis Herman, though a few commentators remarked that she had been a member of the Clinton administration.
As I listened to her honeyed Southern vocal tones, and watched her controlled performance of her duties, the question popped into my head, "Who's that Lady?", a refrain from my favorite tune by the Isley Brothers.
The History Makers
The first African American to become the secretary of labor, Alexis M. Herman was born in Mobile, Alabama, on July 16, 1947. Her mother was a teacher in Mobile and her father was the first black politician elected in the South since Reconstruction.
Herman spoke of her childhood in an interview with NPR:
http://www.npr.org/...
Raised in Mobile, Ala., she experienced discrimination first-hand. Herman's father was a civil rights advocate, and, on one occasion, the Ku Klux Klan brutally beat him in front of her. But he never gave up his activism.
Her father was the protégé of staunch segregationist Congressman Frank Boykin. The politics of the South sometimes created odd alliances, and the Negro politicians and business people in the days of Jim Crow often had relationships with the white powerful, who talked segregation out of one side of their mouths but who doled out favors and sponsorship to blacks, becoming benign patriarch's.
Congressman Frank Boykin lived through the 1890s Populist era, when certain quixotic politicians tried to unite poor whites and blacks to challenge wealthy white interests, and through the 1920s resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan.
When he went to Congress in 1935, the Depression overrode the race issue. Then came World War II. In 1943, Boykin worked behind the scenes for added security, and called publicly for calm, after white workers at Mobile's Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Co. rioted over the promotion of black workers to welding jobs in military shipbuilding.
Through the war and later, Boykin burnished a reputation for helping black constituents, whether they could vote or not. He befriended Alex Herman, a burial insurance company owner who was the first black Mobile Mardi Gras king and first black member of the executive board of the Mobile County Democratic Party.
Boykin called Herman "Godchild" and Herman called him "Godpa." Alexis Herman, the latter's daughter and U.S. secretary of labor under President Clinton, said she never learned when they adopted those names, or exactly what they meant by them.
But she said Boykin, who gave her a gold necklace on her graduation from Most Pure Heart of Mary High School -- one of the first gifts she got from a white person -- was someone her father counted on.
"When people would get in trouble and go to jail, or whenever there were political issues in the community, folk would come to see my father," she said. "Then he'd go see the (white) men downtown. But if it were a serious issue, he'd always have to get Congressman Boykin involved. You just felt like Godpa would come through."
Young Alexis, named for her father Alexander, attended a local Catholic High School, and then went on to attend Xavier University,
a historically Black Roman Catholic University located in New Orleans, Louisiana. Xavier has the distinction of being the only historically black university in the United States that is Roman Catholic.
At Xavier she became active in Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. For those of you not familiar with the African American experience, black sororities and fraternites have played a major role in the networking of a developing black middle class, and the "Deltas", as they are called have always supported social activism and the development of strong black female leadership. Delta Sigma Theta Sorority is the largest African-American Greek-lettered sorority in the world, with a membership of over 250,000.
Delta History
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority was founded on January 13, 1913 by twenty-two collegiate women at Howard University. These students wanted to use their collective strength to promote academic excellence and to provide assistance to persons in need. The first public act performed by the Delta Founders involved their participation in the Women's Suffrage March in Washington D.C., March 1913.
I know a lot about Delta's because my mother was a member. Through the Delta's Alexis Herman is connected to a powerful history of black women in politics - past and present. Notable Delta's include Barbara Jordan, Shirley Chisolm, Carol Moseley-Braun and Stephanie Tubbs-Jones.
After college, Herman worked for Catholic Charities and other agencies advocating minority women employment. Jimmy Carter met the young Herman while campaigning in Atlanta, Georgia and, after winning the White House in 1977, tapped her to be Director of the Labor Department's Women's Bureau. At age 29, she was the youngest person to ever serve in that position.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Her appointment by Carter led to her active engagement in both the inner workings of the Democratic Party and another major appointment during the Clinton Administration:
In 1981, Herman founded her own consulting firm - A.M. Herman & Associates. She served as president of the company while remaining active in Democratic politics. During her tenure as chief of staff and later vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, she was responsible for organizing the 1992 Democratic National Convention.
After Bill Clinton's victory in the 1992 Presidential election, Herman became deputy director of the Presidential Transition Office. She was later appointed to head the White House Office of Public Liaison, where she was responsible for the administration's relations with interest groups.
During Clinton's second term, Herman was named Secretary of Labor, the first African American to be nominated for that position and the fifth woman to be appointed. Her nomination was initially opposed by Congressional Republicans and labor unions, but she earned praise from her peers for her handling of the 1997 UPS workers strike.
But she also became the target of the series of high profile investigations of Clinton appointees and in 1998 was accused of bribery
New York Times
Labor Secretary Is 5th Cabinet Member to Face Investigation
By STEPHEN LABATON
May 12, 1998
WASHINGTON -- In becoming the fifth member of President Clinton's Cabinet to be examined by an independent counsel, Labor Secretary Alexis M. Herman will now face months of investigation and big legal bills.
What distinguishes Ms. Herman's case from most of the others, however, is that Attorney General Janet Reno found "no evidence clearly demonstrating" her involvement in a crime. In this instance, a businessman has accused Ms. Herman of an influence-peddling scheme, saying she received $4,500 and improperly steered contributions to the Democratic Party.
http://www.laborers.org/...
Bill Clinton testified for her and there was no indictment.
During the 2000 Florida election recount, Herman was part of team planning a transition to a Gore Administration, and she was mentioned as a likely candidate for White House Chief of Staff. She was replaced as Secretary of Labor in the George W. Bush administration by Elaine Chao.
Herman has served as the co-chair of the Rules and Bylaws Committee since 2005, and she has held high-level positions in the Democratic Party –- as the DNC chief of staff for Chairman Ron Brown and as the CEO of the 1992 Democratic National Convention.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
So I've answered my question this morning about Alexis Herman. As more an more African-American women play visible roles in the Party, as a black woman I find it interesting to explore their history and how they've come to these positions.
Figured I'd better close this diary with some music, since the Isley Brothers tune is renting space in my head. So here's a blast from the past from Soul Train.
Who's That Lady