(ThyBlackMan.com) May we take a moment to mourn the transition of the Honorable Alexis 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, Drouthy 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 fulfilling, 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.
Written by Julianne Malveaux
Official website; https://www.juliannemalveaux.com
