Eleanor Holmes Norton

Infobox_Congressman
name = Eleanor Holmes Norton

---

date of birth = birth date and age|1937|06|13
place of birth = Washington, D.C.
occupation= attorney
alma_mater= Antioch College, Yale University
residence= Washington, D.C.
state = Washington, D.C.
district = At-large
term = 1991–present
preceded = Walter Fauntroy
succeeded = Incumbent
party = Democratic
spouse = Divorced
religion = Episcopalian

Eleanor Holmes Norton (born June 13, 1937) is a Delegate to Congress representing the District of Columbia. In her position she is able to serve on and vote with committees, as well as speak from the House floor. However, she is not permitted to vote on final passage of legislation.

Early life

Norton was born in Washington, D.C., and attended Antioch College (B.A. 1960), Yale University (M.A. 1963) and Yale Law School (L.L.B 1964). [ [http://www.norton.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=189&Itemid=127 Biography of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton] ]

While in college and graduate school, Norton was active in the civil rights movement and an organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. By the time Norton graduated from Antioch, she had already been arrested for organizing and participating in sit-ins in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Ohio. While in law school, she traveled to Mississippi for the Mississippi Freedom Summer and worked with civil rights stalwarts like Medgar Evers. Norton's first encounter with a recently released, but physically beaten Fannie Lou Hamer forced Norton to bear witness to the intensity of violence and Jim Crow repression in the South. [ [http://www.voicesofcivilrights.org/civil3.html Voices of the Civil Rights Movement] ] Her time with SNCC inspired her lifelong commitment to social activism and her budding sense of feminism. In the early 1970s, Eleanor Holmes Norton was a signer of the [http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm/blkmanif/ "Black Woman’s Manifesto"] , a classic document of the Black feminist movement.

Upon graduation from law school, she became a law clerk to Federal District Court Judge A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. At the end of her clerkship, she later served as an assistant legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, adjunct assistant professor at New York University Law School, and executive assistant to the Mayor of New York. In the early 1970s, Mayor John Lindsay appointed her as the head of the New York City Human Rights Commission and she held the first hearings in the country on discrimination against women. Prominent feminists from throughout the country came to New York City to testify, while Norton used the platform as a means of raising public awareness about the application of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to women and sex discrimination. [ [http://www.voicesofcivilrights.org/civil3.html Voices of the Civil Rights Movement] ]

As the Carter appointed first female Chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Norton released the EEOC's first set of regulations outlining what constituted sexual harassment and declaring that sexual harassment was indeed a form of sexual discrimination that violated federal civil rights laws. [ [http://law.jrank.org/pages/12498/Sexual-Harassment.html Sexual Harassment - Further Readings] ]

She has also served as a senior fellow of the Urban Institute and a professor at Georgetown University Law Center.

Norton was one of the founders of the the "Women's Rights Law Reporter", the first legal periodical to focus exclusively on women's rights.

Delegate to Congress

Norton was elected in 1990 as a Democratic delegate to the House of Representatives, defeating city council member Betty Ann Kane in the primary despite the last-minute revelation that Norton had failed to file D.C. income tax returns for several years and owed thousands of dollars.cite news
title=D.C. Delegate; Norton Overcomes Last-Minute Crisis to Win
first=Michael
last=Abramowitz
work=The Washington Post
page=A21
date=1990-09-12
url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/72613775.html?FMT=ABS
accessdate=2008-07-28] cite news
title=Second D.C. Candidate Didn't Pay Taxes; Shadow Seat Hopeful Says Failure to File Is a Protest for Statehood
first=R.H.
last=Melton
coauthors=Abramowitz, Michael
work=The Washington Post
page=A01
date=1990-09-25
url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/72616347.html?FMT=ABS
accessdate=2008-07-28] Her campaign manager was Donna Brazile. The delegate position was open because Del. Walter Fauntroy was running for mayor rather than seeking reelection.cite web
title=Historical Elected Officials: Delegate to the US House of Representatives
author=District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics
accessdate=2008-07-20
url=http://www.dcboee.org/information/eo_index/history/delegate.shtm] Norton took office on January 3, 1991, and has been reelected every two years since. Norton is up for reelection in November 2008.

Delegates to Congress are entitled to sit in the House of Representatives and vote in committee (including the Committee of the Whole), but are not allowed to take part in legislative floor votes. [ [http://www.dcvote.org/media/media.cfm?mediaID=2045&year=2007 DC Vote - The Local Delegation: Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.)] ] The District shares this limited form of congressional representation with Puerto Rico and three other U.S. territories: Guam, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Seealso|District of Columbia voting rights

Committee assignments

*Committee on Homeland Security
**Subcommittee on Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection
**Subcommittee on Emergency Communications, Preparedness, and Response
*Oversight and Government Reform Committee
**Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia Subcommittee
*Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
**Subcommittee on Aviation
**Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment

Appearances

On July 27, 2006, Norton appeared on the "Better Know a District" segment of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report", in which she spiritedly defended the District of Columbia's claim to being a part of the United States. Norton also appeared on the joint "Colbert Report"/"Daily Show" "" special on November 7, 2006. A further interview with Stephen Colbert was conducted on March 22, 2007, and April 22, 2007 on the subject of representation in the District of Columbia. On February 12, 2008, Colbert and Norton discussed her status as a superdelegate as well as her support of Barack Obama for President.

Colbert and Norton have a friendly rivalry, with their interviews usually involving Colbert belittling Norton's fight for fair representation of D.C. and Norton famously questioning Colbert's nationality due to the pronunciation of his surname.

Norton is a regular panelist on the PBS women's news program "To the Contrary".

On June 27, 2008, Norton appeared on "Democracy Now!" to discuss the Supreme Court's ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller. [ [http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/27/supreme_court_strikes_down_dc_handgun Supreme Court Strikes Down DC Handgun Ban] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.norton.house.gov/ U.S. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton] official government website
* [http://www.dcvote.org/trellis/denial/DistrictofColumbiaDelegatestoCongress.cfm History and powers of DC's Delegate to Congress]
* [http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=72238 The Colbert Report: Better Know a District – District of Columbia – Eleanor Holmes Norton Pt. 1]

USRepSuccessionBox
type= Delegate
state= District of Columbia
before=Walter Fauntroy
start= January 3, 1991