Alexis Herman, the First Black U.S. Secretary of Labor, Was a Soror of Delta Sigma Theta

Did you know that Alexis Herman, the first Black American to serve as United States Secretary of Labor, was a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.? Herman was initiated through the Gamma Alpha Chapter at Xavier University of Louisiana.

Alexis Margaret Herman was born on July 16, 1947, in Mobile, Alabama, the daughter of Alex Herman, the first Black ward leader in Alabama, and a schoolteacher. She came of age under segregation and witnessed its violence early, as her father was beaten by the Ku Klux Klan when she was a child. As a high school sophomore, she was briefly suspended for challenging her archdiocese’s exclusion of Black students from religious pageants, an early sign of the courage that would define her life.

Herman graduated from Xavier University of Louisiana, a historically Black Catholic university, and at just 29 years old was appointed by President Jimmy Carter as the youngest-ever director of the Labor Department’s Women’s Bureau. Before that, she had begun her career fighting for opportunity, helping to desegregate the parochial schools of her hometown, working as a social worker in Mississippi, and directing a program to move Black women into managerial and technical jobs.

Over the next two decades, Herman became a formidable force in Democratic politics. She managed Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaigns, served as chief of staff to Democratic National Committee chairman Ron Brown, and became the first Black woman to serve as chief executive officer of the Democratic National Convention. After Bill Clinton’s election, she directed the White House Office of Public Liaison.

In 1997, Herman made history when the Senate confirmed her as the 23rd United States Secretary of Labor, making her the first Black American to hold the post. As Deltas filled the Senate chambers in crimson and cream to support their soror, she took the helm of a department of 17,000 employees. She quickly proved her skill, personally mediating the 1997 United Parcel Service strike, the largest in the country in two decades, and helping to settle it in just fifteen days.

Alexis Herman died on April 25, 2025, at the age of 77, remembered as a trailblazer for workers, women, and Black Americans. Her lifetime of service reflected the scholarship, service, and social action at the heart of Delta Sigma Theta.