Remembering 1st black US secretary of labor

She died Friday at the age of 77.

Herman broke many barriers in her prolific career, and the outpouring of praise since her death suggests how she empowered others to do the same.

“In every effort, she lifted people with her unfailing optimism and energy,” said former President Bill Clinton. “We will miss her very much.”

Within months after joining Clinton’s Cabinet, Herman mediated the negotiations between United Parcel Service leaders and 185,000 striking postal workers that ended the largest U.S. strike in a decade.

The deal was one of many ways in which Herman advanced the interests of “those who had been shut out of opportunity for decades” the AFL-CIO said in a statement following her death on Friday.

Herman also promoted initiatives that brought the U.S. unemployment rate to three-decade low, oversaw two raises to the minimum wage and helped pass the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, which expanded workforce training for low-income Americans across the country.

“As a leader in business, government, and her community, she was a trailblazer who dedicated her life to strengthening America’s workforce and creating better lives for hardworking families,” current U.S. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer said.

Herman was a pioneer long before her work in the Clinton administration.

She was just 29 when President Jimmy Carter appointed her to lead the Women’s Bureau at the Department of Labor in 1977, making her the youngest person to ever hold the position.

Herman worked on political campaigns for prominent black politicians throughout the 1980s, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s two presidential bids, and became the first black woman to hold the position of CEO of the Democratic National Convention in 1992.