Eleanor
Holmes Norton will take to the
podium at the 2004 Democratic
National Convention in Boston on
Thursday, July 29th on the same
night that
Democratic candidate John Kerry
makes his historical speech.
For more than four decades, Eleanor
Holmes Norton, Democratic
Congresswoman from Washington, D.C.,
has been one of the most impassioned
crusaders and legislators America
has ever known. Aptly
nicknamed the
"Warrior on the Hill,"
Norton has been at the center of
some of the most
pivotal moments in contemporary
American history. FIRE IN MY
SOUL, by
award-winning author Joan Steinau
Lester, captures all the struggles,
battles, and triumphs of Norton's
remarkable career. A
meticulously
researched account by Lester, FIRE
IN MY SOUL is a compelling story of
a
fascinating take-charge leader and
her equally stirring times.
> Beginning with Norton's
great-grandfather's escape from
slavery, Lester
traces the family roots, providing a
detailed background of the
influences
that shaped Norton's fiery and
passionate disposition. Lester
examines
Norton's earliest involvements in
politics-stretching back to the
eighth
grade-through her formative years at
Antioch College in Ohio. Here,
Norton
developed the goals that would
direct her life: achieve, advance
the race,
and do something worthwhile for
humanity. "Antioch pushed me,
allowed me to
push toward my more radical self,
the part that was already very
skeptical
about middle-class values,"
Norton states. "The black
middle class was
narrow, proper, and unadventuresome,
and I did not want to relive
it."
As head of Antioch's NAACP
chapter, Norton's successful efforts
to
desegregate local theaters and
restaurants led to a much greater
involvement
in the civil rights crusade in other
areas of the country. "I felt
myself a
part of the civil rights movement
before there was a movement,"
Norton
comments. "I was always
frustrated that we got our race
consciousness so
late. When things finally broke out
(by 1960) all I could think was,
'What
took us so long?'" A star at
Antioch, Norton went on to Yale Law
School,
which led to her work in the 1960s
as a lawyer for the ACLU.
For the next two decades, Norton
served in a variety of positions,
each of
which focused on the issues that
were central to her life's work. She
was
chosen as the Commissioner on Human
Rights in New York; named by
President
Carter to be the first woman to
chair the Equal Employment
Opportunity
Commission; served on the board of
three Fortune 500 companies; worked
relentlessly for reform in South
Africa; and in 1980 she was named
one of
the twenty-five most influential
women in America. Her numerous
accomplishments include writing the
sexual harassment guidelines,
arguing a
Free Speech case successfully before
the Supreme Court, and earning a
Senate
hearing for Anita Hill.
FIRE IN MY SOUL also details
Norton's effective and inspiring
career as a
congresswoman. Having taught law
through the 1980's, Norton won her
first
congressional seat in 1990 for the
federal district of Washington,
D.C., her
hometown. Lester provides a riveting
account of how Norton overcame
numerous
personal and professional obstacles
to not only effect positive changes
for
her district, but also for
widespread, national causes like
free speech and
civil rights. With an uncanny
ability to persuade both Democrats
and
Republicans, Norton has become one
of the most respected leaders in
Washington, D.C. Home to her family
for four generations, D.C. has a
long
history of its own travails and
challenges as a unique federal
enclave. As
its embattled delegate, Norton has
fought tirelessly to secure new
financial
arrangements between Congress and
the District, earning the District's
first
Congressional voting rights in 200
years (later repealed), and her
current
mission of earning full democracy.
"That she is now her city's
voice in
Congress is a miracle match,"
Lester writes.
Through
FIRE IN MY SOUL, we see why Norton
remains an iconic torch-bearer
for the legacy of the civil rights
movement and a hero to her
disenfranchised constituents. Only
gaining speed with her every
success,
Norton's work is far from over and
her passion for the issues closest
to her
heart will never wane. "People
know this woman with the long-haul
commitment
will keep leading the charge from
equal pay for female congressional
custodians to rights bills,"
Lester writes. "This woman who
has had so many
incarnations-civil rights champion,
lawyer, law professor, and member of
congress-is gearing up for new
battles. Like other groundbreaking
women of
her generation, she has had to be
armored and tough, buttressing her
naturally argumentative character.
But it has been a gift to witness
the
warrior's complexity."
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