Alexis Herman, the first Black secretary of labor in U.S. history, dies at age 77

The first Black leader of the U.S. Department of Labor, former Secretary Alexis Herman, has died at the age of 77.

Former President Bill Clinton nominated Herman to the role, which she held from 1997 to 2001, following a career in social work, civil rights and Democratic politics.

“Hillary and I are deeply saddened by the loss of Alexis Herman, our friend of nearly fifty years,” former President Clinton said in a statement. “Our hearts and prayers are with her family and all who loved and admired her.”

Current Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in a statement that Herman “was a trailblazer who dedicated her life to strengthening America’s workforce and creating better lives for hardworking families.”

Herman was born in Mobile, Ala., in 1947, at a time when Jim Crow laws imposed racial segregation and discrimination across the American South.

“The struggle for civil rights was a daily part of our lives,” Herman later testified to Congress.

Herman graduated from Xavier University of Louisiana, a Catholic and historically Black university in New Orleans. She later worked on school desegregation efforts in her hometown of Mobile. In 1977, when Herman was 29 years old, then-President Jimmy Carter selected her to lead the Women’s Bureau at the Department of Labor.

In a 1977 interview with NPR, Herman described the bureau’s mission to serve women in the workplace.

“That means help women to get jobs,” Herman said. “That means to help women find out about opportunities for jobs. That means informing women of their rights if they’re being discriminated against.”

Herman went on to work on the 1988 presidential campaign of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, and in 1992, she became the first Black woman to hold the position of CEO of the Democratic National Convention before joining the Clinton administration.

“I believe that our lives are a gift from God. And what we do with our lives is a gift to God,” Herman said after receiving an award from the National Political Congress of Black Women in 1996. “I have been very blessed to have been used as an instrument for change in our ongoing collective struggle, for us as Black women, to say that we, too, ‘sing America.'”

At her confirmation hearing for secretary of labor, Herman received strong bipartisan support, including from staunch conservatives like former Republican Sens. Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby.

“I want workers to get and keep good jobs,” Herman said at the hearing. “I want working families to enjoy a rising standard of living. And I want workers and their families to have dignity and security throughout their lives.”

After news broke of Herman’s death, civil rights groups, unions and Democratic leaders issued statements praising her decades of work.

“Her legacy of service and trailblazing leadership will continue to inspire generations,” said the NAACP.

“We join the entire labor movement in mourning the loss of Alexis Herman,” said the AFL-CIO in a statement. “Secretary Herman was a trailblazer and relentless advocate for working people.”

“I’m deeply saddened by the passing of a giant and cherished friend,” said Susan Rice, the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. “She was a powerful yet graceful leader, a visionary, a sister to sisters and one of the kindest people I’ve known.”

Throughout her career, Herman championed efforts to increase diversity in government and the workplace, and encouraged young people to get involved in politics.

“I fought for civil rights, I fought for voting rights, I fought for women’s rights in the ’70s,” Herman said in a commencement address at Agnes Scott College in Georgia in 2016. “But now it’s your turn.”