Syosset, NY – March 3, 2025 – ERASE Racism expresses its profound sadness at the death on Saturday of Hazel N. Dukes, the legendary civil rights leader and a close friend of the organization, whom we honored with our Lifetime Achievement Award at our Annual Benefit in June 2024.

Hazel N. Dukes, LHD, served as the National President of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1990 to 1992, was the longstanding President of the NAACP’s New York State Conference, a member of the NAACP National Board of Directors, and a member of the NAACP Executive Committee. Dr. Dukes received a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Adelphi University in Garden City and completed post-graduate work at Queens College.

Through her long career and tireless activism over seven decades, Dr. Dukes showed us all on Long Island, in the U.S. and throughout the world what standing up for equal rights looked like. She was an integral part of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s; fought for fair housing and educational equity, including through her work with the federal Head Start program; served as a community organizer, teacher and so much more.

Dr. Dukes was a dear friend to ERASE Racism, including close friends with our longtime Board member Marge Rogatz. Together, in 2023, they celebrated the renaming of a street in Roslyn Heights to “Dr. Hazel Dukes Way.”

Our sadness at her death is only lessened by our joy in knowing, collaborating with and learning from her. Her leadership and commitment will continue to inspire us, as we confront the assault on civil rights taking place across America. We will think of her always, as we continue her legacy and defend the civil rights to which our nation aspires and to which we must constantly rededicate ourselves.