Aileen C. Hernandez papers

Aileen C. Hernandez (1926-2017) was a Black feminist known for her roles as an original Commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and as the second president of the National Organization for Women (NOW). She was an active member of more than 100 activist and community-based organizations concerned with racial justice, women’s equality, economic equity, fair housing, education, and other social issues.

Aileen Blanche Clarke (later Hernandez) was born in Brooklyn, New York on May 23, 1926 to Jamaican immigrants Ethel Hall Clarke and Charles Clarke. After graduating from Bay Ridge High School as Salutatorian in 1943, Hernandez enrolled at Howard University, a historically black university in Washington, DC. In 1943, DC was still a segregated city, and Hernandez responded to the experience of living there by joining the university's National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter and walking picket lines at DCs theaters and restaurants. In 1947, she graduated from Howard Magna Cum Laude with a degree in sociology and political science and went to Norway to do graduate work in comparative government at the University of Oslo. After her return to the United States, Hernandez enrolled in graduate school at New York University. While there in 1951, she was hired by the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) Training Institute, where she worked for eleven years as an organizer and educator, primarily in the Union's Pacific Coast Region, based in Los Angeles. There, in 1957, she married Alfonso Hernandez, a garment cutter. The marriage ended in 1961, the same year that Hernandez received her master's degree, summa cum laude, in government from Los Angeles State College.

Leaving the ILGWU in late 1961, Hernandez joined Democrat Alan Cranston’s campaign for California State Comptroller as the political campaign coordinator (he would later work on his 1984 presidential campaign as well). In 1962, Hernandez was appointed Assistant Chief of the California Division of Fair Employment where she worked until 1965, when President Johnson appointed her as the only female Commissioner of the newly-established Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC was established to enforce the provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that outlawed discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. However, Hernandez resigned from the EEOC after 18 months, frustrated by the Commission’s hesitation to pursue cases of sex-based discrimination. In 1967, she opened her own business, Hernandez Associates, an urban affairs and management consulting firm that helped government agencies and companies assess and implement anti-descrimination programs.

In 1967 Hernandez accepted a position as Vice President of the newly-formed National Organization for Women (NOW). She was later elected President of NOW, succeeding Betty Friedan and serving from March 1970 to September 1971. Hernandez continued to be involved with the organization after her presidency, later serving as Chair-one of the National Advisory Committee (1971-1972) and co-founding the Task Force on Minority Women and Women’s Rights (1973-1974). However, after NOW’s annual conference in 1979, Hernandez distanced herself from the organization and publicly criticized them for electing all-white national officers for the second year in a row. In 1973 she co-founded Black Women Organized for Action, one of the first organizations dedicated to the intersecting issues of racial and gender equality. Hernandez later co-founded additional organizations focused on Black women, including the National Hook-Up of Black Women, Sapphire Publishing Company, Bay Area Black Women United, and Black Women Stirring the Waters. Hernandez also served on multiple boards, including the Ms. Foundation for Women, the National Urban Coalition, and the Coalition for Economic Equity. Herandez was active well into her eighties, serving as chair of the California Women's Agenda (CAWA), before passing away on February 13, 2017 at age 90.