The sirens from an ambulance woke up Sade Greene at the Lenox Terrace apartment complex at the beginning of the month. The bell had rang for her famous neighbor down the hall, 92-year-old Hazel “Ma” Dukes, who Greene recalled as a “great mother bear” always asking her about her family.
Dukes, the longtime civil-rights leader and power player in local politics died peacefully in her sleep on March 1, her son Ronald Dukes announced that week.
She worked for former President Lyndon Johnson’s Head Start early childhood education program, served as the chair of Manhattan Community Board 10, was the president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People from 1989 to 1992, the second woman to serve in that role, and was a fixture in Harlem’s businesses, arts and culture. Dukes’ advice and endorsement were highly valued, but she never ran for office herself.
She was also embroiled in some scandals, most notably when she was removed from the NAACP’s national board in 1997 “after she admitted pilfering more than $13,000 from a leukemia-stricken associate who had trusted Ms. Dukes with her finances,” the Associated Press reported at the time. Dukes later pleaded guilty to one count of attempted grand larceny.
Ahead of her memorial services beginning Tuesday evening at Mother A.M.E. Zion Church in Harlem, with her funeral there on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m., community board colleagues and neighbors at her longtime home in the Lenox Terrace apartment complex remembered her as someone who inspired and challenged them, made them laugh, brought them joy and never lacked for authenticity.
Then-NAACP President Hazel Dukes speaks at a civil rights event in 1990. Credit: Screengrab via C-SPAN
“I met Hazel when I was a kid, and I grew up in the NAACP and I just think of all the incredible conversations we had. She was interesting, even for us as kids, and her challenging us,” Community Board 10 member and district leader William Allen recalled at a board meeting last week.
“I remember when Jimmy Carter came to Harlem and spoke in front of this building,” he continued, recalling the presidential candidate’s 1976 campaign stop outside of the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building.
“I was just sitting there. She said, ‘What are you sitting for? Why don’t you come to the stage?’ She was the one that actually pulled me onto the stage for the next president. That moment, I always remembered about her.”
Other board members lauded her leadership when she served as chair of its health committee during the pandemic, when Dukes was in the late 80s.
“She made sure that we had shots, she made sure that we had services, that we had masks, that we had PPE, that we were able to do a lot of drives with local schools. So without her, the footprint that Community Board 10 left during the pandemic would not have happened,” board member and former chair Cicely Harris said at the meeting. “She lobbied for us to make sure that we had vaccine sites right here in Harlem, that we didn’t have to go downtown.”
Dukes, Harris added, wasn’t one to mince words.
Community Board 10 member Cicely Harris poses with Hazel Dukes. Credit: Courtesy of Cicely Harris
“Just for me personally, she was very supportive. She would tell you when you were wrong, but also love you back to doing the right thing, so she never embarrassed you in a way that you felt like you couldn’t recover from it. She loved you silently. She reprimanded you, but she also made sure you got back on the right path and that you were supported.”
‘She Didn’t Play About Time’
Charles Johnson, vice chair of the board, told THE CITY on Thursday that he first met Dukes when he joined the board in 2017 and would regularly visit her apartment, typically on Sundays after church. They both shared a connection as Southerners who migrated north – him from Memphis and her from Alabama.
“We’d spend hours speaking. Just sitting on the couch talking about all types of stuff, really building some type of connection. She was just a good confidant, man. Anytime you just wanted to get perspective about something – letting me know if you’re gonna deal with politics, you gotta have thick skin, you can’t take things personal. There’s no friends or enemies in politics, just a similar interest,” he said, recalling her lessons.
“Because one day that you might be fighting against this person on an issue might be another day that you have to circle around with them and combine forces to get something done.”
Community Board 10 vice chairman Charles Johnson poses with Hazel Dukes. Credit: Courtesy of Charlse Jonshon
Dukes, Johnson continued, “didn’t play about time”:
“She’s funny. She’s a low key, feisty person, too. People talk about folks being funny. She was – she had a very good sense of humor as well,” said Johnson, laughing as he recalled her. “She just reminded me of the old grandma from down south, like ‘folks stay wasting time. If the meeting is supposed to be an hour, it needs to be an hour.’”
Bailey Jeremier, a “fairly new” board member, said that she “learned all about Dr. Dukes” — the title by which Dukes, the recipient of many honorary degrees, liked to be referred — when they served together on CB10’s health and human services committee.
“I’m hearing from everyone like she’s a giant, she’s a bridge,” said Jeremier, recalling that another board member recently had a baby, named Zen, and that Dukes was the first person that she reached out to embrace.
“Then I learned that Dr Dukes was the baby whisperer. She just has that effect on kids. She will definitely be missed.”
Dukes’ influence was felt inside of Lenox Terrace, by neighbors who affectionately called her “auntie.”
“It’s hard to isolate one particular memory,” resident Franc Perry told THE CITY on Monday evening, recalling how Dukes loved to cook deviled eggs. “If you didn’t know who she was and just met her at a party, you’d never know who she was. She’s never blasted who she was because she wasn’t full of her own importance — just a very sweet, kind, funny lady.”
“I walk into my lobby, and there’s all these memorial tributes to her, and flowers and stuff, reminding me that she’s not upstairs anymore,” he said. “God, she must be happy to not have to deal with all of us negros down here and deal with Trump in the White House. I’m so glad she’s happy.”
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