May we take a
moment to mourn the transition of the
Honorable Alxis Margaret Herman (1946-2025),
the first African American woman who served
our nation as Secretary of Labor. Nominated by
President Bill Clinton, her confirmation was
no easy feat. During her hearings, members of
our sorority, Delta Sigma Theta Incorporated,
crowded the Senate chambers in our
unmistakable red and white. We made a point –
Black women are here, and we have her back.
Ultimately, the succumbed to our presence,
with 85 of them voting in her favor.
Alexis was a
southern Belle, a velvet hammer. She was full
of grace, with graceful ways, but anyone who
encountered her should know that grace was not
to be confused with weakness. She was grace
and she was grit, because who, without grit,
could manage a strike between UPS and its
unionized workers? Package delivery was
hobbled for fifteen days, only settled when
Secretary Herman moved into the same hotel
that Teamsters leaders and UPS management
stayed. She shuttled between conference room,
not trying to be graceful, but simply direct.
Yet she was graceful, because she carried
herself that way, and a 1997
commerce-crippling strike was settled.
Alexis was grace,
always grace, often administered with a bit of
a southern twang. It’s not fay-ar, she
sometimes drawled when losing a card game. It
ain’t riiight, she sometimes said, when
losing. Win or lose, she was always gracious,
always ready with the pat on the shoulder, the
generous hug. She was, indeed, the perfect
daughter of her mentor, Dorothy Irene Height,
the longest-serving President of the National
Council of Negro Women.
Alexis took her
Height legacy seriously. After leaving
government service, she created consulting
firms that dealt with diversity and minority
hiring issues. She served on Fortune 500
boards, including Coca-Cola and Exelon. She
mentored hundreds of young people and helped
place them in impactful positions. And she was
the glue that brought people together.
If you attended a
gathering in her sprawling home in Northern
Virginia, you’d not only connect with friends
and colleagues, you’d eat well, connect
fulfillingly, celebrate milestones like new
books, impending births or more, but you’d
also observe Alexis taking a person or two
aside for a private conversation. She was
glue. She brought people together. She was
committed to the collective.
I never heard
Secretary Herman raise her voice, but I often
saw her firm. She was grace, but she didn’t
play. She was kind but she didn’t roll over.
She attracted a coterie of loyal friends and
colleagues, because she was, indeed loyal and
graceful.
I am among the many
mourning the loss of the Honorable Alexis
Margaret Herman, among the many grateful for
her legacy. As labor is being attacked in the
graceless shadow of this feckless
administration, her voice is missed and her
legacy looms large. She was committed to
women’s empowerment, especially Black women’s
empowerment. And she was committed to
diversity, having worked to convince corporate
America that Black women were more than cooks
and maid. She passed the baton to Black women
leaders, who will lift her up as they do the
work of advancing women in the workplace.
Her loss is a
national loss, but for me it is also a
personal loss. I met her as an undergrad, and
she welcomed me to Washington, DC when I moved
here in 1994. She graced me with her presence
when I left Bennett College in 2012. She was
present during many of my milestones,
gracious, kind, supportive, amazing. She will
rest in grace and power, her legacy a blessing
and lesson for each of us.
