HONORING ALEXIS MARGARET HERMAN

On 2025-04-29, Representative Shomari Figures (D-AL-2) delivered a floor speech titled "HONORING ALEXIS MARGARET HERMAN" in the House.

HONORING ALEXIS MARGARET HERMAN

Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 71 (Tuesday, April 29, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 71 (Tuesday, April 29, 2025)] [House] [Pages H1690-H1691] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] {time} 1030 HONORING ALEXIS MARGARET HERMAN (Mr. Figures of Alabama was recognized to address the House for 5 minutes.) Mr. FIGURES. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of a true hometown hero, a legendary trailblazer, a family friend, a mentor to me and many others, and the former Secretary of Labor for this great Nation, Alexis Margaret Herman. I had the privilege to work on a Presidential campaign myself, President Obama's campaign. Before I decided to join that campaign, I called Alexis Herman because she had worked on several Presidential campaigns. I then pursued career opportunities at the White House. Again, I called on Alexis Herman because she too had worked in the White House multiple times. When considering a run for Congress, the seat that I now hold today, I again called Alexis Herman. That is not because I had known her my whole life, it is because few people could advise on the level that she could. Mr. Speaker, to understand Alexis Herman, you have to understand where she comes from. She was born and raised in Mobile, Alabama, my hometown. She came of age with a number of people and some names who you would recognize if you are from the Mobile area. They were people who all were born within a 10- to 15-year range of each other, African Americans, names that some know around the world, like Hank Aaron, but others like my father, Michael Figures, and Thomas Figures, General Gary Cooper, Lonnie Johnson, Yvonne Kennedy, Sam Jones, and this body's very own Sanford Bishop. They were all born and raised in Mobile, Alabama, in generally the same timeframe, and went on to break through a number of barriers, color barriers and otherwise, throughout their careers and make significant contributions to this Nation. Mr. Speaker, Alexis Herman's parents prepared her for the life that she had. Her father was actually the first Black person elected in the State of Alabama to any position post-Reconstruction. This led to him being very active and motivated in Black voter participation. It led to him one day actually being run off the road by the Klan. His five-year- old daughter, Alexis Herman, sat in the car and listened as her father was beaten by the Klan. Her mother was a schoolteacher who Alexis had actually witnessed being thrown off of a segregated bus as a child. This produced Alexis, who went on to be a fighter for civil rights and a fighter for women's rights. She first stood up as a young woman when she challenged why African-American students at her parochial school were not allowed to participate in religious pageantry. She was suspended for that, but that was just the beginning. When she finished school after graduating from Xavier University, she came back home to Mobile, Alabama, and helped desegregate other parochial schools. She then helped get African Americans jobs and apprenticeships at the shipyards for the first time in Mississippi. That led her to doing similar work in Atlanta and helping to diversify some corporations there. That caught the attention of a young Georgia Governor named Jimmy Carter, who was running for President. He ultimately named her, at just 29 years old, the director of the Women's Bureau at the Department of Labor. Mr. Speaker, her journey took her from a segregated Alabama to serving as an adviser to Jimmy Carter and, ultimately, serving as the director of the Office of the Public Liaison, as it was called at the time, under President Clinton. That led to her being a member of the President's Cabinet as the Secretary of Labor where, under her tenure, unemployment fell to a 30-year low here in the United States. She worked to promote job training opportunities for low-income Americans. After that, she didn't quit. She always reached back. She always gave back. She always served as a mentor to give advice to people like myself, who wanted to pursue similar career tracks. That led her to sitting in the boardrooms for companies like MGM, Coca-Cola, and Toyota, some of the biggest companies in the world. She never forgot where she came from. She never did. In January of this year, when she was quietly battling a condition, she took [[Page H1691]] time to send me a text message that read: Shomari, as you take your seat, congratulations. Your dad would be looking down on you proudly. Happy New Year. Mr. Speaker, as I stand here today as a Member of Congress, someone who has followed in her footsteps, it is not only my father who I seek to make proud in this moment, but it is Alexis Herman. I can stand here today because of people like her. ____________________