C. Delores Tucker

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C. Delores Tucker
Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
In office
January 20, 1971 – September 21, 1977
GovernorMilton Shapp
Preceded byJoseph Kelley
Succeeded byBarton Fields
Personal details
Born
Cynthia Delores Nottage

(1927-10-04)October 4, 1927
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedOctober 12, 2005(2005-10-12) (aged 78)[1]
Norristown, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse
William Tucker
​
​
(m. 1951⁠–⁠2005)​
The Wharton School
Profession
  • Politician
  • civil rights activist

Cynthia Delores Tucker (

Civil Rights Movement. She was Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from 1971 to 1977. From the 1990s onward, she engaged in a campaign against gangsta rap
music.

Early life and education

Tucker's house on Lincoln Drive in Philadelphia

Born in

Bahamas. Tucker was the tenth of thirteen children.[1]

Tucker attended

Wharton School of Business
.

Tucker was later the recipient of two

California State University Northridge in California
, and for this reason, she is sometimes referred to as "Dr. C. Delores Tucker".

Career

Civil activities

Tucker had a long history in the

Civil Rights Movement. Early on, her civil activities included participating in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches alongside the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and raising funds for the NAACP.[2] In 1990, Tucker, along with 15 other African American women and men, formed the African-American Women for Reproductive Freedom.[3] She was the convening founder and national chair of the National Congress of Black Women, Inc. (NCBW), having succeeded the Hon. Shirley Chisholm in 1992.[4]

Tucker also was responsible for the Governor's appointment of more women judges and more women and African Americans to boards and commissions than ever before. She also led the effort to make Pennsylvania one of the first states to pass the Equal Rights Amendment. As Chief of Elections of Pennsylvania, she was a leader in instituting a voter registration by mail and reducing the voting age from 21 to 18 years of age.

Political

In 1971, Tucker became the first black female

Commission on the Status of Women.[5] Shapp fired Tucker in September 1977 for allegedly using state employees to write speeches for which she received honorariums.[6] Two years later, one of Tucker's successors as Secretary of the Commonwealth, Ethel D. Allen, was also fired for using public employees to write speeches.[7]

She was the founder and president of the Bethune-DuBois Institute, Inc., which she established in 1991 to promote the cultural development of

African American youth through scholarships and educational programs.[5]
Tucker also launched, and served as publisher of the publication, Vital Issues: The Journal of African American Speeches.

Media

In 1988 she made an

After Dark.[8]

Hip-hop/rap music

Further information: Misogyny in rap music

Tucker dedicated much of the last few years of her life to condemning sexually explicit lyrics in

misogynistic and threatened the moral foundation of the African American community.[9][10]

Called "narrow-minded" by some rappers who often mentioned her in their lyrics, Tucker picketed stores that sold

Image Awards[9] and filed a $10 million lawsuit against his estate for comments that the rapper made in his song "How Do U Want It?"[1] on the album All Eyez on Me, in which Shakur rapped "C. Delores Tucker you's a motherfucker / Instead of trying to help a nigga you destroy a brother". In her lawsuit, Tucker claimed that comments in this song, and on the track "Wonda Why They Call U Bitch" from the same album, inflicted emotional distress, were slanderous, and invaded her privacy.[12][13] This case was eventually dismissed.[14]

Other rappers have taken similar stances. In his song "Church for Thugs", The Game raps "I've got more hatred in my soul than Pac had for Delores Tucker." Jay-Z chimes in as well, with the lines "I don't care if you're C. Dolores Tucker or you're Bill O'Reilly, you only riling me up," from The Black Album's "Threat." Lil' Kim also referenced her in a leftover track, entitled "Rockin' It", from her second studio album. Kim raps "C. Delores T., Screw her, I never knew her", after Tucker dubbed her music as "gangsta porno rap" and "filth".[15][16]

Much of

Parents Television Council until her death in 2005.[18]

Accolades

Selected as one of 25 of the World's Most Intriguing People by

It Takes A Village. The National Women's Political Caucus and Redbook also named her as the woman best qualified to be Ambassador to the United Nations.[5]

For five consecutive years, from 1972 through 1977, she was listed as among

Ladies Home Journal Nominee for Woman of the Year in both 1975 and 1976. She was recognized by Ebony as one of the '100 Most Influential Black Organization Leaders' in the country in 2001 and 2002. Tucker was also a prominent member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.[5]

On April 25, 2006, a state historical marker honoring Tucker was unveiled by Bill Tucker and Governor Ed Rendell in a ceremony at the State Museum of Pennsylvania, in Harrisburg. In addition, it was announced that the North Building, which is adjacent to the State Capitol Building, was to be renamed the Secretary C. Delores Tucker Building. The state marker, which was commissioned by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, was installed outside the entrance to the building. The marker reads:

C. Delores Tucker

1927–2005

Civil rights leader and activist for
women, she was the first African American
Secretary of State in the nation.
Championed the PA Equal Rights Amendment
and policies on affirmative action, voter
registration by mail, and lowering the
voting age to 18. Spearheaded the creation
of the Commission on the Status of Women &
led a successful crusade critical of the
music industry and lyrics demeaning to
women, African Americans, and children.[19]

Personal life and death

In 1951, Tucker married William Tucker,[1] a Philadelphia real estate agent. Tucker herself had worked in real estate and insurance sales early in her career. Tucker had no children.

She died on Wednesday, October 12, 2005, at Suburban Woods Health Center in

Bala Cynwyd
, PA.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f New York Times – C. DeLores Tucker, a Voice for Minorities and Women, Is Dead at 78 – November 6, 2005
  2. ^ "Dr. C. Delores Tucker". nationalcongressbw.org. Wordpress. Archived from the original on February 14, 2016.
  3. ISBN 978-0-8160-4100-8
    . Retrieved February 4, 2012.
  4. ^ "Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 2 – SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS". www.govinfo.gov. Retrieved March 8, 2022.
  5. ^ a b c d Dr. C. DeLores Tucker. University of Maryland. Last accessed August 24, 2007.
  6. ^ "State secretary Tucker fired by Shapp" (PDF). The Daily Collegian. September 22, 1977. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 9, 2012. Retrieved February 18, 2012.
  7. ^ Taylor, John (October 31, 1979). "Third Cabinet Member Fired". The Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved February 15, 2012.
  8. ^ W. Stephen Gilbert, 'Talking Revolution', New Statesman, May 13, 1988
  9. ^ a b c d Lamb, Yvonne Shinhoster (October 13, 2005). "C. Delores Tucker Dies at 78; Rights and Anti-Rap Activist". The Washington Post. pp. B4. Retrieved August 24, 2007.
  10. Parents Television Council. Archived from the original
    on December 10, 2005. Retrieved April 8, 2008.
  11. ^ Philips, Chuck (March 20, 1996). "Anti-rap crusader under fire". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 5, 2023.
  12. ^ latimes.com/local/la-me-tupaccritic1aug0197-story.html
  13. ^ "C. DeLores Tucker files $10 million lawsuit against Tupac Shakur's estate". Jet. 1997.
  14. ^ "C. Delores Tucker; William Tucker, Her Husbandv.richard Fischbein; Belinda Luscombe; Newsweek Magazine; Johnnie L. Roberts; Time Inc.c. Delores Tucker; William Tucker, Appellants, 237 F.3d 275 (3d Cir. 2001)".
  15. ISBN 978-1-312-30605-9
    . Retrieved May 28, 2015.
  16. ^ "Lil' Kim's Music Called "Filth" By Conservative Activist". MTV. May 17, 1997. Retrieved May 28, 2010.
  17. ^ "Tell that C. Delores Tucker slut to suck a dick". Genius. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
  18. ^ PTC Advisory Board Member – C.Delores Tucker Archived September 30, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  19. ^ PHMC: Historical Markers Program Archived 2008-01-07 at the Wayback Machine

External links

Political offices
Preceded by
Joseph Kelley
 Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
1971–1977 		Succeeded by
Barton Fields
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