Alexis Herman
Alexis Margaret Herman (born July 16, 1947) formerly served as the 23rd U.S. Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton; she was the first African-American to hold the position. Prior to serving as Secretary, she was Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.
Alexis Herman
Bill Clinton
Carmen R. Maymi
Lenora C. Alexander
Edgewood College
Spring Hill College (transferred)
Xavier University of Louisiana (AB)
Herman grew up in Mobile, Alabama. After college, she worked to improve employment opportunities for black laborers and women. She then joined the administration of Jimmy Carter, working as director of the Labor Department's Women's Bureau. She became active in the Democratic party, working in the campaigns of Jesse Jackson and then serving as chief of staff for the Democratic National Committee under Ronald H. Brown. She joined the cabinet of President Bill Clinton in 1997.
Following the defeat of Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election, Herman remained active in Democratic politics, in addition to her participation in the private sector, serving on the boards of corporations such as Coca-Cola and Toyota.
Early life and education[edit]
Herman was born on July 16, 1947, in Mobile, Alabama, the daughter of politician Alex Herman and schoolteacher Gloria Caponis,[1] and raised in a Catholic household.[2] Her father became Alabama's first black ward leader.[3] She later recounted how members of the white supremacist group, the Ku Klux Klan, assaulted her father when she was five years old.[4][5] When Herman was growing up in Mobile, schools remained racially segregated.[2] Her parents opted to send Alexis to parochial school, in part because the teachers included white nuns and priests, and thus would expose her to greater diversity.[2]
Herman attended the Heart of Mary High School. As a sophomore, she was suspended for questioning the diocese's exclusion of black students from religious pageants in which white students participated. Following a week of objection from the parents of Herman's fellow black classmates, she was re-admitted.[3]
After graduating from high school, Herman attended Edgewood College in Madison, Wisconsin, and Spring Hill College in Mobile.[6][7] She transferred to Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans, where she became an active member of the Gamma Alpha Chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority[8] and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology in 1969.[9]
Personal life[edit]
Herman was Queen of Carnival for the Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association in 1974.[55][56][57] Her father had served as King of Carnival in his youth.[56]
Herman married physician Charles Franklin Jr. in February 2000 at the Washington National Cathedral.[58] Franklin had three children from previous marriages. He died in 2014 following an extended illness.[59]