Senator Velmanette Montgomery and the New York State Senate honor Dr. Hazel N. Dukes upon the occasion of her designation as recipient of the Empire State and Nation Builder Award by the New York State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators, Inc., in conjunction with the observance of Women's History Month.

In her remarks, Senator Montgomery notes:

Hazel Dukes has been so continuously outspoken on issues across our state for people who basically, very often, didn't have their own voice. It's for our children, it's for our young people, it's for criminal justice, it's for civil rights. All those issues that are so important to our communities across New York State.

We shall never forget or certainly don't underestimate the importance of your leadership, your courage, your tenacity and your fire on behalf of people.

Dr. Hazel N. Dukes currently serves as President of the NAACP New York State Conference as well as a member of the NAACP National Board of Directors and NAACP Executive Committee. 

Dr.  Dukes received a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration from Adelphi University, Garden City, New York and completed post-graduate work at Queens College.  In 1990 she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from the City University of New York Law School at Queens College and in 2009 was conferred the Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Medgar Evers College, Brooklyn, New York.  Dr.  Dukes has many organizational affiliations; she is former President of the Metro-Manhattan Links Chapter, in 2010 was appointed the National Links NGO Representative and is a former trustee of the State University of New York and Stillman College.  Dr.  Dukes is a member of the National Council of Negro Women, Inc., and National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, INC. and a member of the Executive Committee of the American Baptist Churches, USA.

Dr. Dukes is the recipient of numerous awards for her outstanding leadership activities, Ellis Island Medal of Honor, YWCA City of New York John La Farge Memorial Award for Interracial Justice, Guy R. Brewer Humanitarian Award, and the 2007 The Network Journal’s 25 Most Influential Black Women in Business Award, member Ford Motor Company Funds Committee of Honor for Freedom’s Sisters, was honored and received a Proclamation at the New York City Council’s Third Annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Awards ceremony at City Hall in New York. Dukes is an active member of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Rockland County Alumnae Chapter and has been selected to receive the sorority’s Althea T.L. Simmons Social Action Award in August 2010.  Dr.  Dukes was Incorporated in 2007 as a Pi Eta Kappa Fellow and her biography has been selected for publication in many journals and directories including: Fisk University Library, Minority Women Contribution, American Biographical Institute Personalities of Northeast, Who’s Who Among American Women and Who’s Who Among Black Women.

To read the full resolution, visit https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/resolutions/2017/j4151

To learn more about the NAACP New York State Conference, visit https://www.nysnaacp.org