Alexis Herman was operated by former President Bill Clinton to be a work secretary. During her confirmation in 1997, she became the first black work secretary in American history. It is shown here in Las Vegas in 2010.
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The first black chief of the American Labor Department, former secretary Alexis Herman, died at the age of 77.
Former president Bill Clinton appointed Herman to this role, which she occupied from 1997 to 2001, following a career in social work, civil rights and democratic policy.
“Hillary and I are deeply saddened by the loss of Alexis Herman, our friend of almost fifty,” said former President Clinton in a statement. “Our hearts and prayers are with his family and all those who loved it and admired it.”
The current secretary of labor Lori Chavez-Deremer said in a statement that Herman “was a pioneer who devoted his life to strengthening the American workforce and creating a better life for working families”.
Herman was born in Mobile, Alberta, in 1947, at a time when Jim Crow’s laws imposed racial segregation and discrimination through the South American.
“The fight for civil rights was doing our life daily,” Herman told Congress.
Herman graduated from the University of Xavier de Louisiana, a Catholic and historically black university of New Orleans. Later, she worked on the school’s desegration efforts in her hometown of mobile. In 1977, when Herman was 29 years old, the president of the time, Jimmy Carter, selected him to lead the Women’s Office to the Labor Department.
In an interview of 1977 with NPR, Herman described the mission of the office to serve women in the workplace.
“It means helping women find a job,” said Herman. “This means helping women discover job possibilities. This means informing women of their rights if they are victims of discrimination.”
Herman then worked on the 1988 presidential campaign of the civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, and in 1992, she became the first black woman to occupy the post of CEO of the National Democratic Convention before joining the Clinton administration.
“I believe that our lives are a gift from God. And what we make of our lives is a gift to God,” said Herman after receiving a prize from the national political congress of black women in 1996. “I was very blessed to have been used as an instrument for change in our current collective struggle, for us as black women, to say that we too,” sing America “” “” “
During his confirmation hearing for the secretary at work, Herman received strong bipartisan support, in particular from firm conservatives like the former Republican Sens. Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby.
“I want workers to get and keep good jobs,” said Herman during the hearing. “I want workers’ families to enjoy an increasing standard of living. And I want workers and their families to have dignity and security throughout their lives.”
“I want workers to get and keep good jobs,” said Herman during his confirmation hearing to serve as a work secretary. “I want workers’ families to enjoy an increasing standard of living. And I want workers and their families to have dignity and security throughout their lives.”
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After the news announced the death of Herman, civil rights groups, unions and Democratic leaders have published statements praising its decades of work.
“His heritage of service and pioneer leadership will continue to inspire generations,” said NAACP.
“We join the entire Labor movement to cry the loss of Alexis Herman,” said AFL-CIO in a press release. “Secretary Herman was a pioneer and a relentless worker defender.”
“I am deeply saddened by the death of a giant and darling friend,” said Susan Rice, the former American ambassador to the United Nations. “She was a powerful but graceful leader, a visionary, a sister of sisters and one of the nicest people I have known.”
Throughout his career, Herman defended efforts to increase the diversity of government and the workplace, and encouraged young people to get involved in politics.
“I fought for civil rights, I fought for the voting rights, I fought for women’s rights in the 1970s,” Herman told a start speech at Agnes Scott College in Georgia in 2016. “But now it’s your turn.”
