Hazel N. Dukes was a longtime New York-based civil rights activist who once served as president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
- Died: March 1, 2025 (Who else died on March 1?)
- Details of death: Died in Harlem, New York at the age of 92.
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Hazel N. Dukes’ legacy
Dukes was not afraid to speak up when something needed to be said. “I never been a meek, mild woman or little girl. And my daddy’s child. You mess with me, I got you with my mouth,” she once told Spectrum News. Born in Alabama, Dukes initially hoped to be a teacher, but when her family moved to New York in 1955, she began to turn her sights towards civil rights instead.
She worked with the Head Start program in the 1960s, and in 1966 she became the first Black woman to work at the Nassau County Attorney’s Office, eventually serving as a community organizer for the Economic Opportunity Commission of Nassau County.
When Dukes stepped up to head the New York State conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1977, it became a position she would hold until her death. She took on the spotlight between both coasts from 1990 to 1992, when she served as president of the national organization. She also served on the Democratic National Committee from 1976 to 1982.
Dukes worked with a series of New York mayors, including David Dinkins (1927–2020), under whom she was president of New York’s Off-Track Betting Corporation, or OTB, and Eric Adams. In 1990, she was honored with the Candace Award for Community Service from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women. She received the Empire State and Nation Builder Award by the New York State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators; was given the NAACP’s highest honor, the Spingarn Medal; and has multiple honorary doctorates, among other recognitions.
In 1997, Dukes pled guilty to a misdemeanor embezzlement charge after stealing $13,000 from a former OTB employee over whom she had power of attorney four years prior. She paid the money back.
Notable quote
“Do I get weary? Yes. Do I get discouraged? Yes, but there’s something within me that holdeth the rain, there’s something within me that bears the pain, all that. I know that there’s something within me that says, ‘If I can help somebody as I pass along the way, then my living will not be in vain,’” — 2022 interview with Spectrum News NY 1
Tributes to Hazel N. Dukes
Full obituary: The New York Times
