New York Politics | Politicos give NAACP leader Hazel Dukes rousing sendoff at packed Harlem funeral

Political bigwigs and common community folks filled a Harlem church on Wednesday to bid a rousing farewell to civil rights icon Hazel Dukes, 92, the longtime NAACP leader who died earlier this month without ever taking a break from the struggle.

Right up until the end, speaker after speaker said, Dukes was on the front line, enthusiastically fighting for everything from affordable housing to political inclusion to the rights of migrant workers.

“We’re living in times of uncertainty, discord, difficulty, tough times ahead and it seems especially cruel that we would lose a trusted friend and a leader and a voice,” former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a standing-room-only crowd at Mother A.M.E. Zion Church on W. 137th St.

“We have made and lived history together, and I will always be grateful for her wisdom, her humor and her grace.”

Clinton, who said she first met Dukes in 1992 when her husband, Bill, was running for president, said Dukes was the one who encouraged her to run for Senate in New York.

“When I ran for president in 2016 against he-who-shall-not-be-named, there she was again — as fierce, as focused, as smart as ever,” Clinton said.

Clinton recalled presenting Dukes with the NAACP’s highest honor, the Spingarn Medal, in 2023, after which the freedom-fighting trailblazer vowed to keep pressing on.

“With every breath in my body, I will continue to advocate and do the work necessary to stop those trying to turn back the hands of time,” Dukes said then.

Dukes, who died March 1, was the national president of the NAACP from 1989 to 1992. She was also president of the organization’s New York State conference from 1977 until her death.

One by one, speakers paid tribute, recalling stories of courage and leadership.

“She and I have gone to jail together, and to the White House together,” the Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network, said before entering the service. “We are here to salute someone who is the glue to civil rights in New York.”

Later, Sharpton joked about her political activism, and her influence on devotees who are now running against each other in New York City’s race for mayor.

He said Dukes considered Mayor Adams, Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo her “children.”

“Well, since everybody is her child,” Sharpton said. “I guess we’re gonna have a family feud.”

Mourners at the historic house of worship, the oldest Black church in New York State, included Gov. Hochul, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, former Gov. David Paterson and Attorney General Letitia James.

Mourners began lining up outside the church before the sun came up. Those who couldn’t fit in the cavernous sanctuary watched the service remotely in the church’s basement. There they heard Mayor Adams thank Dukes for her unwavering support, even in the face of scandal.

“She said, ‘Baby, I’m going to stand by you,’” Adams said. “She was the type of woman that walked in the room when everybody walked out. She held my hand, and she prayed with me and she said, ‘You never surrender.’ I am so proud to have been one of her children. She meant so much to me, and I know she meant so much to all of you.”

Cuomo said Dukes was there for him, too.

“She used to say she was my second mother,” Cuomo recalled. “On a personal level, there’s a hole in my heart. Whenever there was trouble, she was the first one to be there. Whenever there was a setback, she was the first one to be there to give me a hug and a kiss.”

Dukes administered the oath of office when Hochul was sworn in as the first woman elected governor of New York in 2023. Hochul said she saw Dukes just two days before she died.

“She says, ‘You be strong and you don’t give up the fight. You cannot,’” Hochul said. “I will carry on that fight. I will be your voice.”