13 Facts About Aileen Hernandez

Aileen Hernandez was an African-American union organizer, civil rights activist, and women's rights activist.

Aileen Hernandez served as the president of the National Organization for Women between 1970 and 1971, and was the first woman to serve on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Aileen Hernandez would go on to co-found several organizations that focused on African-American women, along with teaching at several universities in California.

Aileen Hernandez was born Aileen Blanche Clarke on May 23,1926, in Brooklyn, New York, to Jamaican immigrants Charles Henry Clarke Sr.

Aileen Hernandez was educated at the all-girls Bay Ridge High School in Brooklyn, graduating as the salutatorian of the class of 1943, and went on to attend Howard University.

When she returned to the United States, Aileen Hernandez began graduate studies at New York University, but left for California in 1951 upon learning that the International Ladies Garment Workers Union had an open place in their labor college, which aimed to train new labor leaders.

Active as an organizer with the ILGWU, Aileen Hernandez eventually became the Education and Public Relations Director for the union's Pacific coast region.

Aileen Hernandez helped found the National Organization for Women, and was its second national president from 1970 to 1971, during which time it organized the Women's Strike for Equality.

Aileen Hernandez eventually left NOW in 1979 after white candidates were elected to every officer position for the second straight year.

Between founding NOW and serving as its second president, Aileen Hernandez co-founded Black Women Organized for Political Action in 1969.

Aileen Hernandez served as the co-chair of the National Urban Coalition and on the boards of or advisory committees of the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP, and several other organizations, in addition to teaching within the University of California system and the University of San Francisco and founding an eponymous consulting firm.

Aileen Hernandez donated 187 boxes of personal papers to the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College in 2014.

Aileen Hernandez died on February 13,2017, at the age of 90 from complications related to dementia.