# Hazel Dukes, lifelong civil rights leader, dies aged 92

President of the NAACP New York state chapter fought tirelessly for voting rights, fair housing and education

## Associated Press
Sun 2 Mar 2025 08.33 EST

Unlike the 75-year-old who died in 1949, Hazel Dukes has lived to see her fight for racial justice continue. She was the president of the  state chapter of the NAACP and served as the member of the NAACP national board of directors. Dukes also led the New York state NAACP for nearly five decades.

Dukes was instrumental in the  secretary of state Hillary Clinton's presentation of Dukes with the NAACP’s highest honor – the Spingarn Medal.

“I’m not tired yet,” Dukes said in her acceptance speech for the award. She added that she would continue her advocacy and empower the next generation of NAACP leaders.

Dukes helped lay the foundation for Black women to ascend to the nation’s highest offices. In 1972, she took the stage at the Democratic National Convention to second the presidential candidacy of Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to run for the party’s nomination.

Dukes was instrumental in former president Joe Biden’s decision to choose a Black woman as his 2020 running mate, she noted in  last year. Her career-long fight was bookended by former vice president Kamala Harris’s 2024 bid for the presidency.

In a post in X Saturday, Harris called Dukes one of the heroes “upon whose broad shoulders we stand”.

Dukes was the president of her own consulting firm. She also served as the member of the NAACP national board of directors. Leaders of the NAACP said in a statement on Saturday that Dukes was a “living embodiment” of the NAACP and that her legacy has touched every aspect of the movement.

The New York City mayor, Eric Adams, ordered flags to be lowered at half-staff as a tribute to Dukes.

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