WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 Labor leaders, politicians and civil rights activists are mourning the death of Alexis Herman, the first Black U.S. Secretary of Labor and a fierce advocate for workplace equality.
She died on Friday at the age of 77.
Herman broke many barriers in her prolific career, and the outpouring of praise since her death suggests how she empowered others to do the same.
鈥淚n every effort, she lifted people with her unfailing optimism and energy,” said former President Bill Clinton. “We will miss her very much.鈥
Within months after joining Clinton’s Cabinet, Herman mediated the negotiations between United Parcel Service leaders and 185,000 striking postal workers that ended the largest U.S. strike in a decade.
The deal was one of many ways in which Herman advanced the interests of 鈥渢hose who had been shut out of opportunity for decades鈥 in a statement following her death on Friday.
Herman also promoted initiatives that brought the U.S. unemployment rate to three-decade low, oversaw two raises to the minimum wage and helped pass the of 1998, which expanded workforce training for low-income Americans across the country.
“As a leader in business, government, and her community, she was a trailblazer who dedicated her life to strengthening America鈥檚 workforce and creating better lives for hardworking families,” current U.S. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer said.
Herman was a pioneer long before her work in the Clinton administration.
She was just 29 when President Jimmy Carter appointed her to lead the Women鈥檚 Bureau at the Department of Labor in 1977, making her the youngest person to ever hold the position.
Herman worked on political campaigns for prominent Black politicians throughout the 1980s, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson鈥檚 two presidential bids, and became the first Black woman to hold the position of CEO of the Democratic National Convention in 1992.
She also founded her own consulting firm to advance diversity in corporate America, working with Proctor & Gamble, AT&T and other corporations.
鈥淗er legacy will continue to guide us in our ongoing efforts to build a more just and inclusive society,鈥 said Virginia Rep. Robert Scott, who described Herman as a friend.
Born in 1947 in segregated Mobile, Alabama, Herman witnessed firsthand the racial violence that Black people were subjected to across the South. She once watched her mother 鈥渃ollapse鈥 from exhaustion in the front seat of a public bus after a long day of work as a school teacher. When her mother refused to move to the back, the driver physically forced Herman and her mother off.
鈥淪he held her head high and said to me, 鈥楥ome on Alexis, we will just keep walking.鈥 She just kept moving,鈥 Herman wrote in 鈥淢y Mother鈥檚 Daughter,鈥 an anthology of essays published in 2024. 鈥淎t critical times throughout my life, that life lesson has been my special mantra, 鈥榢eep it moving.鈥
Herman said her childhood home was often filled with students that her mother tutored. She credited her mother with modeling 鈥渁 鈥榗an do鈥 attitude and service, no matter the odds.”
Before becoming a powerful voice for women and minorities in Washington D.C., Herman held a wide variety of jobs to support herself and her mother. She was a telephone operator, house cleaner, camp counselor, teacher鈥檚 aide, social worker and adoption counselor, according to with The New York Times in 2000. And she said she 鈥渘ever had a bad job.”
鈥淢y work has always been a source of fulfillment,” Herman said at the time.
Herman married Dr. Charles Franklin in 2000, a Black physician well known for his advocacy on behalf of his alma mater, Howard University. He died in 2014.
