C. Delores Tucker Dead
- Thread starter Da_Funk
- Start date
Posted on Wed, Oct. 12, 2005
Civil rights activist C. DeLores Tucker dies at 78
BY GAYLE RONAN SIMS
Knight Ridder Newspapers
PHILADELPHIA - (KRT) - Political activist C. DeLores Tucker, 78, who marched arm in arm with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was the first African-American to serve as secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and in later years protested against obscenities in rap music, died Wednesday.
The West Mount Airy, Pa., resident spent her entire life fighting for civil rights; it was a struggle she carried out with poise and elegance. She was known for wearing turbans with her matching ensembles, even when taking to the streets or being arrested.
Within hours of her death - of undisclosed causes at Suburban Woods Health and Rehabilitation Center in Norristown, Pa. - many of the area's highest-ranking politicians issued statements.
"The cause of civil rights was a lifelong crusade for C. DeLores Tucker," Philadelphia Mayor John Street said. "Her continued work promoting and protecting the legacy of Dr. King and the nonviolent movement for change will never be forgotten."
"America has lost one of the great civil rights activists of our time. ... She did it with dedication, class, grace and dignity," Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said.
"I think the state, the nation and the world will long remember a woman who stood up for all people and who dedicated her life to helping others," said Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll.
"She was an unstoppable bell ringer for social change," said U.S. Rep. Robert A. Brady, D-Pa.
"At a time when women and people of color often were relegated to second-class citizenship, she rose above and challenged those assertions, demanding to be engaged based on her intellect and passion," said state Sen. Anthony H. Williams.
Known for thunderous speeches reflective of her father, the Rev. Whitfield Nottage of the old Ebenezer Community Tabernacle in North Philadelphia, Tucker took to the stump at age 16 - protesting from the back of a flatbed truck outside the old Bellevue Stratford hotel because it refused entrance to black athletes.
Cynthia DeLores Nottage, the second-youngest of 11 children, married William Tucker shortly after graduating from Girls High School in 1946.
In high school, she had shown attributes of a leader and activist by organizing students for elections. Throughout her life she got women to identify with her, giving them the feeling they were all running together.
After attending classes at Temple University, she earned a real estate license and with her husband founded an insurance company in the Olney section of Philadelphia. Later, she took business classes at the University of Pennsylvania.
The flamboyant Tucker marched into history at the side of King during a civil rights protest in Selma, Ala., in 1965.
In 1970, she was the first black woman to be named vice chair of the state Democratic Party and the first woman vice president of the Pennsylvania NAACP.
One year later, Gov. Milton J. Shapp tapped her as the first black and first woman to be secretary of the commonwealth. Tucker relished her high political profile. The license plate on her state limousine read "3" - to let everyone know she was the third-most-powerful person in Pennsylvania government.
During her tenure, Tucker helped streamline voter registration and lower the voting age to 18, and started the first State Commission on the Status of Women.
Tucker fell from political grace in 1977, when Shapp fired her for using state employees to write political speeches that earned her $65,000.
Supporters, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Dick Gregory and Rosa Parks, rallied around her, saying her dismissal was racially motivated.
After being fired, Tucker excused herself by saying: "Maybe it is wrong, but it is a way of life."
She wondered at the time whether a white man would have been treated the same way.
Tucker was not reinstated, and she never again held public office. She ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 1978, and lost a bid for the U.S. Senate in 1980.
She returned to selling real estate and insurance, but remained politically active, making many friends along the way. She was head of the minority caucus of the Democratic National Committee and was a founding member of the National Women's Political Caucus.
In 1984, Tucker founded the National Political Congress of Black Women, now called the National Congress of Black Women.
In 1993, she grabbed headlines when she came out against obscenities in rap music. She protested, wrote letters, and picketed the NAACP in 1994, even though she was on the board of trustees, when it nominated gangsta rapper Tupac Shakur for one of its Image Awards. (He did not win.)
Tucker said in a 1994 Philadelphia Inquirer article that she was "ready to go to jail, ready to die, whatever is necessary to stop this pornographic filth ..."
Indeed, Tucker was always ready. She was arrested a handful of times while picketing in front of music stores that sold the music.
She was such a vocal and visible opponent of the messages in the music that rappers took to ridiculing her in their lyrics. She fired back with defamation lawsuits against the artists and the conglomerates that distributed their music.
In 1999, a federal judge threw out the suit Tucker filed against the estate of Shakur, who was slain in 1996, involving the rhyming of her surname with an obscenity in his 1996 album "All Eyez on Me."
She was also unsuccessful in suits against Time, Newsweek and other publications for their apparent misinterpretation of a lawyer's comment to reporters about her lawsuit seeking damages for emotional distress because of a "loss of consortium."
The legal definition of consortium includes a spouse's loss of "society, guidance, companionship and sexual relations," but it was the sexual aspect that magazines and a number of newspapers, including the Philadelphia Daily News, cited.
Tucker and her attorneys denied that the suit had anything to do with damage to her sex life.
The suit was thrown out by U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter in 1999.
Tucker is survived by her husband.
Services have not been arranged.
---
© 2005, The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Visit Philadelphia Online, the Inquirer's World Wide Web site, at http://www.philly.com
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
Civil rights activist C. DeLores Tucker dies at 78
BY GAYLE RONAN SIMS
Knight Ridder Newspapers
PHILADELPHIA - (KRT) - Political activist C. DeLores Tucker, 78, who marched arm in arm with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was the first African-American to serve as secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and in later years protested against obscenities in rap music, died Wednesday.
The West Mount Airy, Pa., resident spent her entire life fighting for civil rights; it was a struggle she carried out with poise and elegance. She was known for wearing turbans with her matching ensembles, even when taking to the streets or being arrested.
Within hours of her death - of undisclosed causes at Suburban Woods Health and Rehabilitation Center in Norristown, Pa. - many of the area's highest-ranking politicians issued statements.
"The cause of civil rights was a lifelong crusade for C. DeLores Tucker," Philadelphia Mayor John Street said. "Her continued work promoting and protecting the legacy of Dr. King and the nonviolent movement for change will never be forgotten."
"America has lost one of the great civil rights activists of our time. ... She did it with dedication, class, grace and dignity," Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said.
"I think the state, the nation and the world will long remember a woman who stood up for all people and who dedicated her life to helping others," said Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll.
"She was an unstoppable bell ringer for social change," said U.S. Rep. Robert A. Brady, D-Pa.
"At a time when women and people of color often were relegated to second-class citizenship, she rose above and challenged those assertions, demanding to be engaged based on her intellect and passion," said state Sen. Anthony H. Williams.
Known for thunderous speeches reflective of her father, the Rev. Whitfield Nottage of the old Ebenezer Community Tabernacle in North Philadelphia, Tucker took to the stump at age 16 - protesting from the back of a flatbed truck outside the old Bellevue Stratford hotel because it refused entrance to black athletes.
Cynthia DeLores Nottage, the second-youngest of 11 children, married William Tucker shortly after graduating from Girls High School in 1946.
In high school, she had shown attributes of a leader and activist by organizing students for elections. Throughout her life she got women to identify with her, giving them the feeling they were all running together.
After attending classes at Temple University, she earned a real estate license and with her husband founded an insurance company in the Olney section of Philadelphia. Later, she took business classes at the University of Pennsylvania.
The flamboyant Tucker marched into history at the side of King during a civil rights protest in Selma, Ala., in 1965.
In 1970, she was the first black woman to be named vice chair of the state Democratic Party and the first woman vice president of the Pennsylvania NAACP.
One year later, Gov. Milton J. Shapp tapped her as the first black and first woman to be secretary of the commonwealth. Tucker relished her high political profile. The license plate on her state limousine read "3" - to let everyone know she was the third-most-powerful person in Pennsylvania government.
During her tenure, Tucker helped streamline voter registration and lower the voting age to 18, and started the first State Commission on the Status of Women.
Tucker fell from political grace in 1977, when Shapp fired her for using state employees to write political speeches that earned her $65,000.
Supporters, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Dick Gregory and Rosa Parks, rallied around her, saying her dismissal was racially motivated.
After being fired, Tucker excused herself by saying: "Maybe it is wrong, but it is a way of life."
She wondered at the time whether a white man would have been treated the same way.
Tucker was not reinstated, and she never again held public office. She ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 1978, and lost a bid for the U.S. Senate in 1980.
She returned to selling real estate and insurance, but remained politically active, making many friends along the way. She was head of the minority caucus of the Democratic National Committee and was a founding member of the National Women's Political Caucus.
In 1984, Tucker founded the National Political Congress of Black Women, now called the National Congress of Black Women.
In 1993, she grabbed headlines when she came out against obscenities in rap music. She protested, wrote letters, and picketed the NAACP in 1994, even though she was on the board of trustees, when it nominated gangsta rapper Tupac Shakur for one of its Image Awards. (He did not win.)
Tucker said in a 1994 Philadelphia Inquirer article that she was "ready to go to jail, ready to die, whatever is necessary to stop this pornographic filth ..."
Indeed, Tucker was always ready. She was arrested a handful of times while picketing in front of music stores that sold the music.
She was such a vocal and visible opponent of the messages in the music that rappers took to ridiculing her in their lyrics. She fired back with defamation lawsuits against the artists and the conglomerates that distributed their music.
In 1999, a federal judge threw out the suit Tucker filed against the estate of Shakur, who was slain in 1996, involving the rhyming of her surname with an obscenity in his 1996 album "All Eyez on Me."
She was also unsuccessful in suits against Time, Newsweek and other publications for their apparent misinterpretation of a lawyer's comment to reporters about her lawsuit seeking damages for emotional distress because of a "loss of consortium."
The legal definition of consortium includes a spouse's loss of "society, guidance, companionship and sexual relations," but it was the sexual aspect that magazines and a number of newspapers, including the Philadelphia Daily News, cited.
Tucker and her attorneys denied that the suit had anything to do with damage to her sex life.
The suit was thrown out by U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter in 1999.
Tucker is survived by her husband.
Services have not been arranged.
---
© 2005, The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Visit Philadelphia Online, the Inquirer's World Wide Web site, at http://www.philly.com
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
Posted on Wed, Oct. 12, 2005
Civil rights activist C. DeLores Tucker dies at 78
BY GAYLE RONAN SIMS
Knight Ridder Newspapers
PHILADELPHIA - (KRT) - Political activist C. DeLores Tucker, 78, who marched arm in arm with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was the first African-American to serve as secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and in later years protested against obscenities in rap music, died Wednesday.
The West Mount Airy, Pa., resident spent her entire life fighting for civil rights; it was a struggle she carried out with poise and elegance. She was known for wearing turbans with her matching ensembles, even when taking to the streets or being arrested.
Within hours of her death - of undisclosed causes at Suburban Woods Health and Rehabilitation Center in Norristown, Pa. - many of the area's highest-ranking politicians issued statements.
"The cause of civil rights was a lifelong crusade for C. DeLores Tucker," Philadelphia Mayor John Street said. "Her continued work promoting and protecting the legacy of Dr. King and the nonviolent movement for change will never be forgotten."
"America has lost one of the great civil rights activists of our time. ... She did it with dedication, class, grace and dignity," Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said.
"I think the state, the nation and the world will long remember a woman who stood up for all people and who dedicated her life to helping others," said Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll.
"She was an unstoppable bell ringer for social change," said U.S. Rep. Robert A. Brady, D-Pa.
"At a time when women and people of color often were relegated to second-class citizenship, she rose above and challenged those assertions, demanding to be engaged based on her intellect and passion," said state Sen. Anthony H. Williams.
Known for thunderous speeches reflective of her father, the Rev. Whitfield Nottage of the old Ebenezer Community Tabernacle in North Philadelphia, Tucker took to the stump at age 16 - protesting from the back of a flatbed truck outside the old Bellevue Stratford hotel because it refused entrance to black athletes.
Cynthia DeLores Nottage, the second-youngest of 11 children, married William Tucker shortly after graduating from Girls High School in 1946.
In high school, she had shown attributes of a leader and activist by organizing students for elections. Throughout her life she got women to identify with her, giving them the feeling they were all running together.
After attending classes at Temple University, she earned a real estate license and with her husband founded an insurance company in the Olney section of Philadelphia. Later, she took business classes at the University of Pennsylvania.
The flamboyant Tucker marched into history at the side of King during a civil rights protest in Selma, Ala., in 1965.
In 1970, she was the first black woman to be named vice chair of the state Democratic Party and the first woman vice president of the Pennsylvania NAACP.
One year later, Gov. Milton J. Shapp tapped her as the first black and first woman to be secretary of the commonwealth. Tucker relished her high political profile. The license plate on her state limousine read "3" - to let everyone know she was the third-most-powerful person in Pennsylvania government.
During her tenure, Tucker helped streamline voter registration and lower the voting age to 18, and started the first State Commission on the Status of Women.
Tucker fell from political grace in 1977, when Shapp fired her for using state employees to write political speeches that earned her $65,000.
Supporters, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Dick Gregory and Rosa Parks, rallied around her, saying her dismissal was racially motivated.
After being fired, Tucker excused herself by saying: "Maybe it is wrong, but it is a way of life."
She wondered at the time whether a white man would have been treated the same way.
Tucker was not reinstated, and she never again held public office. She ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 1978, and lost a bid for the U.S. Senate in 1980.
She returned to selling real estate and insurance, but remained politically active, making many friends along the way. She was head of the minority caucus of the Democratic National Committee and was a founding member of the National Women's Political Caucus.
In 1984, Tucker founded the National Political Congress of Black Women, now called the National Congress of Black Women.
In 1993, she grabbed headlines when she came out against obscenities in rap music. She protested, wrote letters, and picketed the NAACP in 1994, even though she was on the board of trustees, when it nominated gangsta rapper Tupac Shakur for one of its Image Awards. (He did not win.)
Tucker said in a 1994 Philadelphia Inquirer article that she was "ready to go to jail, ready to die, whatever is necessary to stop this pornographic filth ..."
Indeed, Tucker was always ready. She was arrested a handful of times while picketing in front of music stores that sold the music.
She was such a vocal and visible opponent of the messages in the music that rappers took to ridiculing her in their lyrics. She fired back with defamation lawsuits against the artists and the conglomerates that distributed their music.
In 1999, a federal judge threw out the suit Tucker filed against the estate of Shakur, who was slain in 1996, involving the rhyming of her surname with an obscenity in his 1996 album "All Eyez on Me."
She was also unsuccessful in suits against Time, Newsweek and other publications for their apparent misinterpretation of a lawyer's comment to reporters about her lawsuit seeking damages for emotional distress because of a "loss of consortium."
The legal definition of consortium includes a spouse's loss of "society, guidance, companionship and sexual relations," but it was the sexual aspect that magazines and a number of newspapers, including the Philadelphia Daily News, cited.
Tucker and her attorneys denied that the suit had anything to do with damage to her sex life.
The suit was thrown out by U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter in 1999.
Tucker is survived by her husband.
Services have not been arranged.
---
© 2005, The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Visit Philadelphia Online, the Inquirer's World Wide Web site, at http://www.philly.com
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
Civil rights activist C. DeLores Tucker dies at 78
BY GAYLE RONAN SIMS
Knight Ridder Newspapers
PHILADELPHIA - (KRT) - Political activist C. DeLores Tucker, 78, who marched arm in arm with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was the first African-American to serve as secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and in later years protested against obscenities in rap music, died Wednesday.
The West Mount Airy, Pa., resident spent her entire life fighting for civil rights; it was a struggle she carried out with poise and elegance. She was known for wearing turbans with her matching ensembles, even when taking to the streets or being arrested.
Within hours of her death - of undisclosed causes at Suburban Woods Health and Rehabilitation Center in Norristown, Pa. - many of the area's highest-ranking politicians issued statements.
"The cause of civil rights was a lifelong crusade for C. DeLores Tucker," Philadelphia Mayor John Street said. "Her continued work promoting and protecting the legacy of Dr. King and the nonviolent movement for change will never be forgotten."
"America has lost one of the great civil rights activists of our time. ... She did it with dedication, class, grace and dignity," Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said.
"I think the state, the nation and the world will long remember a woman who stood up for all people and who dedicated her life to helping others," said Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll.
"She was an unstoppable bell ringer for social change," said U.S. Rep. Robert A. Brady, D-Pa.
"At a time when women and people of color often were relegated to second-class citizenship, she rose above and challenged those assertions, demanding to be engaged based on her intellect and passion," said state Sen. Anthony H. Williams.
Known for thunderous speeches reflective of her father, the Rev. Whitfield Nottage of the old Ebenezer Community Tabernacle in North Philadelphia, Tucker took to the stump at age 16 - protesting from the back of a flatbed truck outside the old Bellevue Stratford hotel because it refused entrance to black athletes.
Cynthia DeLores Nottage, the second-youngest of 11 children, married William Tucker shortly after graduating from Girls High School in 1946.
In high school, she had shown attributes of a leader and activist by organizing students for elections. Throughout her life she got women to identify with her, giving them the feeling they were all running together.
After attending classes at Temple University, she earned a real estate license and with her husband founded an insurance company in the Olney section of Philadelphia. Later, she took business classes at the University of Pennsylvania.
The flamboyant Tucker marched into history at the side of King during a civil rights protest in Selma, Ala., in 1965.
In 1970, she was the first black woman to be named vice chair of the state Democratic Party and the first woman vice president of the Pennsylvania NAACP.
One year later, Gov. Milton J. Shapp tapped her as the first black and first woman to be secretary of the commonwealth. Tucker relished her high political profile. The license plate on her state limousine read "3" - to let everyone know she was the third-most-powerful person in Pennsylvania government.
During her tenure, Tucker helped streamline voter registration and lower the voting age to 18, and started the first State Commission on the Status of Women.
Tucker fell from political grace in 1977, when Shapp fired her for using state employees to write political speeches that earned her $65,000.
Supporters, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Dick Gregory and Rosa Parks, rallied around her, saying her dismissal was racially motivated.
After being fired, Tucker excused herself by saying: "Maybe it is wrong, but it is a way of life."
She wondered at the time whether a white man would have been treated the same way.
Tucker was not reinstated, and she never again held public office. She ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 1978, and lost a bid for the U.S. Senate in 1980.
She returned to selling real estate and insurance, but remained politically active, making many friends along the way. She was head of the minority caucus of the Democratic National Committee and was a founding member of the National Women's Political Caucus.
In 1984, Tucker founded the National Political Congress of Black Women, now called the National Congress of Black Women.
In 1993, she grabbed headlines when she came out against obscenities in rap music. She protested, wrote letters, and picketed the NAACP in 1994, even though she was on the board of trustees, when it nominated gangsta rapper Tupac Shakur for one of its Image Awards. (He did not win.)
Tucker said in a 1994 Philadelphia Inquirer article that she was "ready to go to jail, ready to die, whatever is necessary to stop this pornographic filth ..."
Indeed, Tucker was always ready. She was arrested a handful of times while picketing in front of music stores that sold the music.
She was such a vocal and visible opponent of the messages in the music that rappers took to ridiculing her in their lyrics. She fired back with defamation lawsuits against the artists and the conglomerates that distributed their music.
In 1999, a federal judge threw out the suit Tucker filed against the estate of Shakur, who was slain in 1996, involving the rhyming of her surname with an obscenity in his 1996 album "All Eyez on Me."
She was also unsuccessful in suits against Time, Newsweek and other publications for their apparent misinterpretation of a lawyer's comment to reporters about her lawsuit seeking damages for emotional distress because of a "loss of consortium."
The legal definition of consortium includes a spouse's loss of "society, guidance, companionship and sexual relations," but it was the sexual aspect that magazines and a number of newspapers, including the Philadelphia Daily News, cited.
Tucker and her attorneys denied that the suit had anything to do with damage to her sex life.
The suit was thrown out by U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter in 1999.
Tucker is survived by her husband.
Services have not been arranged.
---
© 2005, The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Visit Philadelphia Online, the Inquirer's World Wide Web site, at http://www.philly.com
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
Civil Rights, Anti-Rap Activist C. Delores Tucker Dies at 78
Thursday, October 13, 2005
By Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb The Washington Post
WASHINGTON--C. Delores Tucker, a political and social activist who waged a fiery national campaign against obscenities in rap music, died Oct.12 at Suburban Woods Health and Rehabilitation Center in Norristown, Pa. She was 78 and had a heart ailment and lung condition.
Tucker, who once was the highest-ranking African American woman in Pennsylvania state government, focused a spotlight on rap music in 1993, calling it ``pornographic fifth'' and saying it was demeaning and offensive to black women. ``You can't listen to all that language and filth without it affecting you,'' she said.
She passed out leaflets with lyrics from gangsta rap and urged people to read them aloud. She picketed stores that sold the music, handed out petitions and demanded congressional hearings. She also bought stock in Sony, Time Warner and other companies so she could protest at shareholders meetings.
Crossing political lines, Tucker, a Democrat, joined forces with former secretary of education William Bennett, a Republican, as well as Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn. Bennett called her at the time a ``daunting figure.''
``Usually I'm the noisy one, but she's ferocious,'' he said.
In 1994, Tucker protested when the NAACP, on whose board of trustees she sat, nominated rapper Tupac Shakur for one of its Image Awards.
Rappers called her ``narrow-minded.'' Some ridiculed her in their lyrics. She was sued by two record companies.
The Silver Spring, Md.-based organization she co-founded in 1984, now called the National Congress of Black Women, became the vehicle through which she waged her battle. She succeeded the late congresswoman Shirley Chisholm as national chair in 1992.
An elegant woman who spoke with a stirring cadence, Tucker had a long history in the civil rights movement and politics. Early on, she raised funds for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and joined the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in marches and demonstrations calling for equality and justice.
``I realized we always started at the church and marched to the political kingdom, whether the local or state or national, '' she told The Washington Post in 1995. ``And I realized that's where we needed to go to make a difference. That's where the decisions are being made that affected our lives, but we weren't in those seats.''
Cynthia Delores Nottage was born in Philadelphia on Oct. 4, 1927, the 10th of 11 children of a minister and a ``Christian feminist mother.'' She played the organ and saxophone and directed the choir in church. She attended Temple University, Pennsylvania State University and the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1951, she married William Tucker, a construction company owner who grew prosperous in Philadelphia real estate. She later sold real estate and insurance in Philadelphia.
In the 1960s, after her experiences in the early civil rights movement, she delved deeper into the political arena, working on behalf of black candidates and serving on the Pennsylvania Democratic Committee. She came to be known as a master fundraiser.
In 1971, she was named secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by then-Gov. Milton Shapp, D, making her the highest- ranking African American woman in state government. However, in 1977, the governor fired her for using state employees to write political speeches for which she was paid.
Political office eluded her. In 1978, she ran for lieutenant governor; in 1980, for the U.S. Senate; and in 1992, for the U.S. House. However, her political involvement continued. She was head of the minority caucus of the Democratic National Committee and a founding member of the National Women's Political Caucus. She chaired the Black Caucus of the Democratic National Committee for 11 years and spoke at five Democratic conventions.
Tucker, the recipient of numerous awards, also founded the Washingon D.C.-based Bethune-DuBois Institute to provide educational and training programs for black youths.
Survivors include her husband, of Philadelphia.
He once said that she was ``one of the most fearless individuals I have ever known. She will take on anyone, anything, if that is what she thinks is right. ... I tell her there are times you have to compromise, but she is not one who will readily entertain the idea of compromise about anything.''
Thursday, October 13, 2005
By Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb The Washington Post
WASHINGTON--C. Delores Tucker, a political and social activist who waged a fiery national campaign against obscenities in rap music, died Oct.12 at Suburban Woods Health and Rehabilitation Center in Norristown, Pa. She was 78 and had a heart ailment and lung condition.
Tucker, who once was the highest-ranking African American woman in Pennsylvania state government, focused a spotlight on rap music in 1993, calling it ``pornographic fifth'' and saying it was demeaning and offensive to black women. ``You can't listen to all that language and filth without it affecting you,'' she said.
She passed out leaflets with lyrics from gangsta rap and urged people to read them aloud. She picketed stores that sold the music, handed out petitions and demanded congressional hearings. She also bought stock in Sony, Time Warner and other companies so she could protest at shareholders meetings.
Crossing political lines, Tucker, a Democrat, joined forces with former secretary of education William Bennett, a Republican, as well as Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn. Bennett called her at the time a ``daunting figure.''
``Usually I'm the noisy one, but she's ferocious,'' he said.
In 1994, Tucker protested when the NAACP, on whose board of trustees she sat, nominated rapper Tupac Shakur for one of its Image Awards.
Rappers called her ``narrow-minded.'' Some ridiculed her in their lyrics. She was sued by two record companies.
The Silver Spring, Md.-based organization she co-founded in 1984, now called the National Congress of Black Women, became the vehicle through which she waged her battle. She succeeded the late congresswoman Shirley Chisholm as national chair in 1992.
An elegant woman who spoke with a stirring cadence, Tucker had a long history in the civil rights movement and politics. Early on, she raised funds for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and joined the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in marches and demonstrations calling for equality and justice.
``I realized we always started at the church and marched to the political kingdom, whether the local or state or national, '' she told The Washington Post in 1995. ``And I realized that's where we needed to go to make a difference. That's where the decisions are being made that affected our lives, but we weren't in those seats.''
Cynthia Delores Nottage was born in Philadelphia on Oct. 4, 1927, the 10th of 11 children of a minister and a ``Christian feminist mother.'' She played the organ and saxophone and directed the choir in church. She attended Temple University, Pennsylvania State University and the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1951, she married William Tucker, a construction company owner who grew prosperous in Philadelphia real estate. She later sold real estate and insurance in Philadelphia.
In the 1960s, after her experiences in the early civil rights movement, she delved deeper into the political arena, working on behalf of black candidates and serving on the Pennsylvania Democratic Committee. She came to be known as a master fundraiser.
In 1971, she was named secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by then-Gov. Milton Shapp, D, making her the highest- ranking African American woman in state government. However, in 1977, the governor fired her for using state employees to write political speeches for which she was paid.
Political office eluded her. In 1978, she ran for lieutenant governor; in 1980, for the U.S. Senate; and in 1992, for the U.S. House. However, her political involvement continued. She was head of the minority caucus of the Democratic National Committee and a founding member of the National Women's Political Caucus. She chaired the Black Caucus of the Democratic National Committee for 11 years and spoke at five Democratic conventions.
Tucker, the recipient of numerous awards, also founded the Washingon D.C.-based Bethune-DuBois Institute to provide educational and training programs for black youths.
Survivors include her husband, of Philadelphia.
He once said that she was ``one of the most fearless individuals I have ever known. She will take on anyone, anything, if that is what she thinks is right. ... I tell her there are times you have to compromise, but she is not one who will readily entertain the idea of compromise about anything.''
Civil Rights, Anti-Rap Activist C. Delores Tucker Dies at 78
Thursday, October 13, 2005
By Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb The Washington Post
WASHINGTON--C. Delores Tucker, a political and social activist who waged a fiery national campaign against obscenities in rap music, died Oct.12 at Suburban Woods Health and Rehabilitation Center in Norristown, Pa. She was 78 and had a heart ailment and lung condition.
Tucker, who once was the highest-ranking African American woman in Pennsylvania state government, focused a spotlight on rap music in 1993, calling it ``pornographic fifth'' and saying it was demeaning and offensive to black women. ``You can't listen to all that language and filth without it affecting you,'' she said.
She passed out leaflets with lyrics from gangsta rap and urged people to read them aloud. She picketed stores that sold the music, handed out petitions and demanded congressional hearings. She also bought stock in Sony, Time Warner and other companies so she could protest at shareholders meetings.
Crossing political lines, Tucker, a Democrat, joined forces with former secretary of education William Bennett, a Republican, as well as Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn. Bennett called her at the time a ``daunting figure.''
``Usually I'm the noisy one, but she's ferocious,'' he said.
In 1994, Tucker protested when the NAACP, on whose board of trustees she sat, nominated rapper Tupac Shakur for one of its Image Awards.
Rappers called her ``narrow-minded.'' Some ridiculed her in their lyrics. She was sued by two record companies.
The Silver Spring, Md.-based organization she co-founded in 1984, now called the National Congress of Black Women, became the vehicle through which she waged her battle. She succeeded the late congresswoman Shirley Chisholm as national chair in 1992.
An elegant woman who spoke with a stirring cadence, Tucker had a long history in the civil rights movement and politics. Early on, she raised funds for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and joined the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in marches and demonstrations calling for equality and justice.
``I realized we always started at the church and marched to the political kingdom, whether the local or state or national, '' she told The Washington Post in 1995. ``And I realized that's where we needed to go to make a difference. That's where the decisions are being made that affected our lives, but we weren't in those seats.''
Cynthia Delores Nottage was born in Philadelphia on Oct. 4, 1927, the 10th of 11 children of a minister and a ``Christian feminist mother.'' She played the organ and saxophone and directed the choir in church. She attended Temple University, Pennsylvania State University and the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1951, she married William Tucker, a construction company owner who grew prosperous in Philadelphia real estate. She later sold real estate and insurance in Philadelphia.
In the 1960s, after her experiences in the early civil rights movement, she delved deeper into the political arena, working on behalf of black candidates and serving on the Pennsylvania Democratic Committee. She came to be known as a master fundraiser.
In 1971, she was named secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by then-Gov. Milton Shapp, D, making her the highest- ranking African American woman in state government. However, in 1977, the governor fired her for using state employees to write political speeches for which she was paid.
Political office eluded her. In 1978, she ran for lieutenant governor; in 1980, for the U.S. Senate; and in 1992, for the U.S. House. However, her political involvement continued. She was head of the minority caucus of the Democratic National Committee and a founding member of the National Women's Political Caucus. She chaired the Black Caucus of the Democratic National Committee for 11 years and spoke at five Democratic conventions.
Tucker, the recipient of numerous awards, also founded the Washingon D.C.-based Bethune-DuBois Institute to provide educational and training programs for black youths.
Survivors include her husband, of Philadelphia.
He once said that she was ``one of the most fearless individuals I have ever known. She will take on anyone, anything, if that is what she thinks is right. ... I tell her there are times you have to compromise, but she is not one who will readily entertain the idea of compromise about anything.''
Thursday, October 13, 2005
By Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb The Washington Post
WASHINGTON--C. Delores Tucker, a political and social activist who waged a fiery national campaign against obscenities in rap music, died Oct.12 at Suburban Woods Health and Rehabilitation Center in Norristown, Pa. She was 78 and had a heart ailment and lung condition.
Tucker, who once was the highest-ranking African American woman in Pennsylvania state government, focused a spotlight on rap music in 1993, calling it ``pornographic fifth'' and saying it was demeaning and offensive to black women. ``You can't listen to all that language and filth without it affecting you,'' she said.
She passed out leaflets with lyrics from gangsta rap and urged people to read them aloud. She picketed stores that sold the music, handed out petitions and demanded congressional hearings. She also bought stock in Sony, Time Warner and other companies so she could protest at shareholders meetings.
Crossing political lines, Tucker, a Democrat, joined forces with former secretary of education William Bennett, a Republican, as well as Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn. Bennett called her at the time a ``daunting figure.''
``Usually I'm the noisy one, but she's ferocious,'' he said.
In 1994, Tucker protested when the NAACP, on whose board of trustees she sat, nominated rapper Tupac Shakur for one of its Image Awards.
Rappers called her ``narrow-minded.'' Some ridiculed her in their lyrics. She was sued by two record companies.
The Silver Spring, Md.-based organization she co-founded in 1984, now called the National Congress of Black Women, became the vehicle through which she waged her battle. She succeeded the late congresswoman Shirley Chisholm as national chair in 1992.
An elegant woman who spoke with a stirring cadence, Tucker had a long history in the civil rights movement and politics. Early on, she raised funds for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and joined the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in marches and demonstrations calling for equality and justice.
``I realized we always started at the church and marched to the political kingdom, whether the local or state or national, '' she told The Washington Post in 1995. ``And I realized that's where we needed to go to make a difference. That's where the decisions are being made that affected our lives, but we weren't in those seats.''
Cynthia Delores Nottage was born in Philadelphia on Oct. 4, 1927, the 10th of 11 children of a minister and a ``Christian feminist mother.'' She played the organ and saxophone and directed the choir in church. She attended Temple University, Pennsylvania State University and the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1951, she married William Tucker, a construction company owner who grew prosperous in Philadelphia real estate. She later sold real estate and insurance in Philadelphia.
In the 1960s, after her experiences in the early civil rights movement, she delved deeper into the political arena, working on behalf of black candidates and serving on the Pennsylvania Democratic Committee. She came to be known as a master fundraiser.
In 1971, she was named secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by then-Gov. Milton Shapp, D, making her the highest- ranking African American woman in state government. However, in 1977, the governor fired her for using state employees to write political speeches for which she was paid.
Political office eluded her. In 1978, she ran for lieutenant governor; in 1980, for the U.S. Senate; and in 1992, for the U.S. House. However, her political involvement continued. She was head of the minority caucus of the Democratic National Committee and a founding member of the National Women's Political Caucus. She chaired the Black Caucus of the Democratic National Committee for 11 years and spoke at five Democratic conventions.
Tucker, the recipient of numerous awards, also founded the Washingon D.C.-based Bethune-DuBois Institute to provide educational and training programs for black youths.
Survivors include her husband, of Philadelphia.
He once said that she was ``one of the most fearless individuals I have ever known. She will take on anyone, anything, if that is what she thinks is right. ... I tell her there are times you have to compromise, but she is not one who will readily entertain the idea of compromise about anything.''
Donate
Any donations will be used to help pay for the site costs, and anything donated above will be donated to C-Dub's son on behalf of this community.
Members online
No members online now.