Cardiss Collins - Infinite Women

Born: 24 September 1931, United States
Died: 3 February 2013
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA

The following is republished from the U.S. Congress. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).

Elected to 12 consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, Cardiss Collins ranks as one of the longest-serving women of color in the history of Congress. Succeeding her late husband, Representative George W. Collins, after his death in 1972, Cardiss Collins was one of only a handful of women to serve in Congress for more than 20 years, and for six years she was the only Black woman in the chamber. Collins, a member of the powerful Chicago Democratic organization headed by Mayor Richard J. Daley, was a dedicated legislator who focused on the economic and social needs of her urban district. “We must have housing, jobs and an energy policy that doesn’t tell our people ‘make a decision between heating and eating,’” she said.

Cardiss Collins was born Cardiss Hortense Robertson on September 24, 1931, in St. Louis, Missouri, to Finley, a laborer, and Rosia Mae Robertson, a nurse. Upon graduating from the Detroit High School of Commerce in Michigan, she worked in a factory tying mattress springs while living with her maternal grandmother in Chicago. She later found employment as a stenographer at a carnival equipment company. Attending night classes at Northwestern University, she earned a business certificate in 1966 and a diploma in professional accounting one year later. After graduation, Collins remained in Chicago, where she worked for the Illinois department of labor as a secretary and later with the Illinois department of revenue as an auditor.

Collins gained her first political experience serving as a committeewoman for Chicago’s Democratic ward organization. In 1958, she married George Collins and participated in his various campaigns for alderman, committeeman, and U.S. Representative while raising their son, Kevin. On November 3, 1970, George Collins won both a special and a general election to fill a U.S. House seat representing Chicago that had been left vacant following the death of Illinois Representative Daniel John Ronan. Known as a diligent but quiet Member who rarely spoke on the House Floor, George Collins had close political ties to Richard J. Daley.

In December 1972, shortly after George Collins won election to another term in Congress, he died in an airplane crash near Chicago’s Midway Airport. Attention immediately turned to Cardiss Collins to fill his seat. “I never gave politics a thought for myself. When people started proposing my candidacy right after the crash, I was in too much of a daze to think seriously about running,” she said. As she mourned, Collins announced her candidacy for the special election to fill the congressional seat held by her late husband that encompassed the predominantly African-American West Side of Chicago. Newly drawn after court-ordered redistricting, the district stretched east to west across the city and was about 60 percent Black. Its borders took in some of the wealthiest and some of the poorest neighborhoods in Chicago. With the solid backing of Mayor Daley’s Cook County Democratic organization, Collins handily defeated her opponents Otis Collins, a former state representative, and Milton Gardner, a law student, in the Democratic primary, winning 84 percent of the vote. On June 5, 1973, she became the first African-American woman to represent the state of Illinois in Congress by defeating Republican contender Lar Daly and Independent Angel Moreno with an overwhelming 92 percent of the vote.

Collins, who was reserved by nature, was eager to begin legislating and set out to learn and master the lawmaking process in an institution often dominated by big personalities. A few years after taking office, she noted, “Once people learned I had something to say, I gained confidence.” In 1973, Collins commented that her primary objective as a Representative was to “provide better living and working conditions for people [on Chicago’s west side] and other low- and moderate-income people throughout the country.” Known for her commitment to the issues directly affecting her constituents, Collins spent eight days each month in her district to ensure that she stayed abreast of their concerns. The close attention Collins paid to her district reaped benefits at the polls. For more than two decades, Collins won by comfortable margins in the strongly Democratic district, typically defeating her Republican opponents by more than 80 percent. Collins did, however, experience some difficult primary races during the mid-1980s against Danny K. Davis, who later succeeded her—a consequence of the decline in power of the Cook County Democratic organization that accelerated with the death of Richard J. Daley in 1976. Still, Collins proved to be a resilient and popular lawmaker.

During her first term in Congress, Collins served on the Committee on Government Operations. As a member of the panel throughout her tenure in Congress, Collins chaired two Government Operations subcommittees: Manpower and Housing; and Government Activities and Transportation. She eventually rose to the position of ranking Democrat of the full committee during the 104th Congress (1995–1997). Collins also served on the Committee on International Relations from 1975 to 1980, the District of Columbia Committee during the 95th Congress (1977–1979), and the influential Committee on Energy and Commerce from the 97th through the 104th Congress (1981–1997). She was the first Black woman to serve on the panel and eventually chaired the Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Competitiveness Subcommittee in the 102nd and the 103rd Congresses (1991–1995). In 1975, Collins was the first African American and woman selected as an at-large Democratic whip.

During the 96th Congress (1979–1981), Collins became chair of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), giving her a powerful position with which to influence the lawmaking process. As only the second woman to lead the CBC and as the fourth Black woman ever to serve in the U.S. House, Collins found herself in the spotlight. The high visibility of her position encouraged her to become more outspoken. As chair, Collins voiced disapproval with President James Earl “Jimmy” Carter’s record on civil rights, and she criticized the President for failing to gather congressional support to make Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a federal holiday. Collins also disparaged the House for its failure to pass the bill, saying that “racism had a part in it.” At one fundraiser, Collins called for unity within the CBC as many Black lawmakers grew disillusioned with the Carter administration, declaring, “We will no longer wait for political power to be shared with us, we will take it.” Members of the CBC praised Collins, citing her ability to lead with fairness and to create an atmosphere that encouraged unity through open debate.

Throughout her 24 years in Congress, Collins dedicated herself to the advancement of African Americans and other minority communities. Collins was an advocate for affirmative action in hiring and federal contract set-asides for minority-owned businesses. According to Collins, some federal agencies—including the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Federal Trade Commission, and the U.S. Department of Justice—were not upholding the provisions of the Civil Rights Act requiring agencies that received federal funding provide information on their affirmative action programs. Her 1984 findings as chair of the House Subcommittee on Government Activities and Transportation led her to ask Congress to curb funding to specific agencies, arguing, “Laws that have been debated and passed by the courts cannot arbitrarily be negated by individuals.” She continued her defense of affirmative action by drawing attention to the hiring practices of U.S. airlines, which rarely placed African Americans in professional positions. In her push for equality in the aviation industry, Collins successfully amended the Airport and Airway Safety, Capacity, and Expansion Act of 1987, requiring that 10 percent of all concession stands in airports be run by minority- and women-owned businesses.

Collins also worked to prevent federal tax write-offs for advertising firms that discriminated against minority-owned media companies. Hoping to “provide black and other minority station owners with a mechanism for redress,” Collins argued that financial penalties for offending agencies would help combat discrimination and level the playing field for all media organizations. She also used her Energy and Commerce Committee seat to crusade against gender and racial inequality in broadcast licensing. On several occasions, Collins introduced legislation to preserve Federal Communications Commission policies designed to increase the number of women and minorities who owned media companies.

As a Government Operations subcommittee chair, Collins held oversight hearings on an array of topics, including safety in air travel and the transportation of toxic materials. After Congress passed the McKinney–Vento Homeless Assistance Act in 1987, Collins monitored the implementation of a provision that encouraged the federal government to make its surplus properties available to local governments and nonprofits to assist people experiencing homelessness. She authored legislation to facilitate the transfer of a federal building near the Capitol to the District of Columbia government for use as a homeless shelter.

As chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Competitiveness, Collins pursued legislation to regulate children’s products. She sponsored the Child Safety Protection Act, which required warning labels on toys with small parts and required the Consumer Product Safety Commission to establish standards for the manufacture of children’s bicycle helmets. The act was signed into law in 1994.11

To promote equal opportunities for women who participated in collegiate sports, Collins introduced the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act on February 17, 1993. The amendment to the Higher Education Act of 1965 directed colleges and universities to publicize the rate of program participation by gender. “Putting the public spotlight on athletic schools with records of sex discrimination in their programs will increase pressure for change,” she said. In recognition of her commitment to gender equity in athletics, Collins was inducted into the Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1994.12

To expand access to health care, Collins cosponsored the Universal Health Care Act (1991) and the Health Security Act (1993) and urged the National Institutes of Health to direct resources to study health and wellness issues that concern minorities. “It can no longer be assumed that the entire American population has one uniform set of health care needs and medical responses,” she said. A longtime advocate of increasing breast cancer awareness, Collins drafted legislation to help women older than age 34 receive Medicare coverage for mammograms and introduced a law designating October as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.13

Collins declined to run for re-election to the 105th Congress (1997–1999). She vowed to remain active in Democratic politics but decided that the time had come to end her career in elective office. “I’m going to be 65 next year, and that’s the time many people retire,” she said. After Congress, Collins returned to Chicago, Illinois, and, later, moved to Alexandria, Virginia, where she died on February 3, 2013, at the age of 81.