Eleanor Holmes Norton
Civil rights activist and ACLU alum Eleanor Holmes Norton serves as a non-voting delegate to Congress from the District of Columbia.
Synopsis
Eleanor Holmes Norton defended George Wallace while working for the American Civil Liberties Union in the 1960s. She then moved to the New York Human Rights Commission (1970-77), and the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (1977-83). In 1990, Norton was elected to Congress as a nonvoting delegate from the District of Columbia, and supported legislation to give D.C. a full vote in the House.
Profile
Civil rights activist, politician. Born June 13, 1937 in Washington, D.C. A graduate of Antioch College, Yale University and Yale University Law School, Norton worked in private practice before becoming assistant director of the American Civil Liberties Union (1965–70) where she defended both Julian Bond's and George Wallace's freedom-of-speech rights.
As Chairman of the New York Human Rights Commission (1970–7), Norton championed women's rights and anti-block-busting legislation. She then went to Washington to chair the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (1977–83), and in 1982 became a law professor at Georgetown University.
In 1990, Norton was elected as a Democratic non-voting delegate to the House from the District of Columbia. Currently under scrutiny, the DC Fair and Equal House Voting Rights Act (or DC Vote) would give one vote to the District of Columbia in the House of Representatives, but not the Senate. Norton is a regular panelist on the PBS women's news program To the Contrary.
