Friends,
I’m sad to share with you the news that Alexis Herman, who succeeded me as secretary of labor in the Clinton administration, has died.
Alexis was the first Black person to hold that job.
I knew her as a gifted administrator and dedicated public servant.
Under President Carter, she was the youngest person to direct the women’s bureau at the Labor Department. She continued to seek to empower women in her roles at the Urban League and the National Council of Negro Women, where she worked alongside her mentor, Dorothy Height.
I saw Alexis champion efforts to increase diversity in government and the workplace and encourage young people to get involved in politics.
At the Labor Department, she successfully settled the United Parcel Service (UPS) strike, the largest strike in the United States in two decades — meeting privately with Teamsters’ president Ron Carey and the UPS chairman and helping end the strike after 15 days.
As labor secretary, Alexis supported the 1996 and 1997 raises to the minimum wage — arguing, justifiably, that the wage hike would increase the buying power of workers, which would be good for the economy.
I recall Alexis talking about her childhood in Mobile, Alabama — the challenges she faced as a Black woman, the obstacles she had to overcome, and the help she provided to advance the careers of countless young people from Mobile, as well as other places around the country.
I’ve often thought that the causes one fights for define someone’s life. Alexis was a fighter for civil rights, women’s rights, and worker’s rights.
My thanks to Alexis Herman for a life well led.
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