During Sunday's George Washington University commencement, alongside the thousands of undergraduate and graduate students receiving degrees, a D.C. legend was also honored.
Eleanor Holmes Norton, the nonvoting Democratic delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives since 1991, was given an honorary degree from GW. She was recognized as an honorary Doctor of Public Service, for her tenure as the congressional representative for the District and for her work before that role, advocating for women, equality and human rights.
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WATCH HEREShe received the honorary degree alongside real estate developer and Washington Nationals managing principal owner Mark D. Lerner, and philanthropist and American political history collector Mark R. Shenkman, both GW alumni.
"Mark Lerner, Eleanor Holmes Norton and Mark Shenkman exemplify the highest ideals of leadership, service, and excellent in their respective fields," GW president Ellen M. Granberg said in a press release.
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SIGN UP As a delegate representing D.C., Norton cannot vote on legislation in Congress. But, as an elected official, "she has been a tireless advocate for the passage of legislation that would grant the District of Columbia a voting representative in the House," a release from GW said.
Her service to others began long before her first election victory, when she participated in the civil rights movement in the 1960s as a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, working with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and former Rep. John Lewis. She participated in sit-ins and protests including the March on Washington in 1963.
In 1965, Norton became the associate director for the American Civil Liberties Union, and in 1970, she represented 60 women in a claim the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) made against the magazine Newsweek. At that time, Newsweek only allowed men to become reporters. Norton's advocacy led to the magazine hiring its first female reporters.
In 1977, she was appointed by former President Jimmy Carter to be the first female chair of the EEOC. She has also served as the head of New York City's Human Rights Commission, the release said.
