By Victoria Mejicanos
AFRO Staff Writer
vmejicanos@afro.com
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, 88, has officially announced her retirement. After 35 years representing the District, Norton has filed paperwork to end her reelection campaign.
In a Jan. 27 letter speaking on her retirement, Norton reflected on her career and its impact on the city.
“I’ve had the privilege of representing the District of Columbia in Congress since 1991. Time and again, D.C. residents entrusted me to fight for them at the federal level, and I have not yielded,” Norton said. “With fire in my soul and the facts on my side, I have raised hell about the injustice of denying 700,000 taxpaying Americans the same rights given to residents of the states for 35 years. “
D.C Mayor Muriel Bowser spoke to the tenacity shown by Norton on Capitol Hill.
“Congresswoman Norton has been our Warrior on the Hill,” wrote Bowser. “Her work embodies the unwavering resolve of a city that refuses to yield in its fight for equal representation.”
Her retirement comes after she faced recent calls to step aside as residents and local lawmakers questioned her ability to effectively advocate for the city. Norton will serve the remainder of her term.
Norton has not endorsed any of the candidates in the Democratic primary, slated for June 16, to succeed her, but D.C. Councilmember Robert White, one of the democratic candidates running to succeed her, praised her influence in D.C in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“As a fifth-generation Washingtonian, from an early age I looked to Congresswoman Norton as a model of what public service should be,” wrote White. “Her name is synonymous with authentic leadership.”
Prior to her role in Congress, Norton was a prominent civil rights attorney and advocate. In 1970, she represented sixty female employees of Newsweek in a gender discrimination lawsuit against the newspaper. Norton also served on the founding board of “Women’s Rights Law Reporter,” the first legal periodical focused on women, and was one of the women to sign the “Black Woman’s Manifesto,” arguing against the oppression of Black women.
The AFRO covered many of her personal and professional wins throughout her decades long career.
President Jimmy Carter appointed Norton as the first woman to chair the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 1977, where she shaped federal regulations on gender equity and workplace sexual harassment.
A Nov 12, 1977 issue of the AFRO, notes that there were 130,000 unresolved cases at the agency when Norton took the job. Within 6 months, she had come up with a comprehensive plan to reduce the number of unresolved cases, stating in an interview “I will make every effort to make sure that this governmental agency is as efficient and productive as it can be and restore the lost confidence the agency suffered.”
The late James L. Wright Jr, the late, internationally respected former AFRO reporter and editor, covered Norton’s career extensively. In 1995, Wright discussed her role in several congressional committees despite losing her ability to vote on the floor of the U.S House of Representatives due to a Republican majority.
Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Yvette D. Clark, in a public statement, spoke to Norton’s decades-long fight to make the District of Columbia a full state.
“Eleanor – when Washington, D.C. one day ascends to statehood, it will have done so upon your shoulders,” Clark wrote. “You are a true leader and living legend, and we owe you a debt of gratitude that can never truly be repaid.”