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Cardiss Collins

Representative, 1973–1997, Democrat from Illinois

Cardiss Collins Image Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration

By the end of her congressional career, Cardiss Collins was the longest-serving black woman in the history of Congress. She served 12 consecutive terms, a decade of which she was the only African-American woman in Congress. After succeeding her late husband, George Collins, in the House of Representatives after his death in 1972, Cardiss Collins continued his legacy as a loyal politician in the Chicago Democratic organization under the direction of Mayor Richard Daley. As one of a handful of women to serve in Congress for more than 20 years, Representative Collins evolved into a dedicated legislator who focused on the economic and social needs of her urban district.

Cardiss Hortense Robertson was born on September 24, 1931, in Saint Louis, Missouri, to Finley, a laborer, and Rosia Mae Robertson, a nurse. Upon graduating from the Detroit High School of Commerce in Michigan, she began work 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. Her drive for advancement pushed her to attend night classes at Northwestern University, where she earned a business certificate in 1966 and a diploma in professional accounting one year later.1 After graduation, Cardiss Robertson remained in Chicago, where she worked for the Illinois department of labor as a secretary and later with the Illinois department of revenue. She worked for the latter office as an auditor until her election to Congress.

Robertson gained her first political experience in the party organization of Chicago, when she served as a committeewoman for the ward regular Democratic organization. In 1958 she married George Washington Collins and participated in his various campaigns for alderman, committeeman, and U.S. Representative, while raising their son Kevin.2 On November 3, 1970, George Collins won a special election to fill a U.S. House seat representing Chicago, which became vacant after the death of Illinois Representative Daniel J. Ronan. In his one term in Congress, he served on the House Government Operations and Public Works committees. As a World War II veteran, the Democratic Congressman worked to improve the conditions of African Americans serving in the military. Known as a diligent but quiet Member who rarely spoke on the House Floor, Collins had close political ties to Richard Daley.3

In December 1972, shortly after George Collins won election to his second term in Congress, he died in an airplane crash near Chicago’s Midway Airport. His widow later recalled, “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.”4 Collins overcame her initial reluctance, however, and announced her candidacy for the special election to fill the vacant congressional seat that encompassed the predominantly African-American west side of Chicago.5 Created in the apportionment of 1947, the inner-city district was one of five congressional seats located in Chicago, each of which was a product of the local political machine.6 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 Columbia University law student, in the Democratic primary, winning 84 percent of the vote.7 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 Angel Moreno, an Independent, in convincing fashion, with 92 percent of the vote.8

Although anxious to continue the work begun by her husband in Congress, Collins admittedly had much to learn about her new job. Her lack of political experience, made worse by entering office midterm, led to unfamiliarity with congressional procedures. During her early tenure, Collins often relied upon her colleagues in the House to assist her in learning more about the basic rules of Congress. Collins also had to overcome her reserved demeanor. A few years after taking office, she noted that “once people learned I had something to say, I gained confidence.9 ”

During her first term in Congress, Collins served on the Committee on Government Operations (later Government Reform and Oversight). 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. As chair of the latter subcommittee from 1983 to 1991, Collins worked to improve air travel safety and fought for stricter controls on the transportation of toxic materials. 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 (later Foreign Affairs) from 1975 to 1980, the District of Columbia Committee during the 95th Congress (1977–1979), and the influential Committee on Energy and Commerce (later Commerce) from the 97th through the 104th Congresses (1981–1997). Collins also earned distinction as the first African American and woman selected as a Democratic Whip At-Large.

Four years after taking office in 1973, Collins commented that her primary objective as a Congresswoman 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 she stayed abreast of the concerns of her voters.10 The close attention she 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.11 Collins did, however, experience some difficult primary races during the mid-1980s—a consequence of the declining power of the Cook County Democratic organization that accelerated with the death of Daley in 1976.12 She proved resilient without the influential machine that helped launch her congressional career; devoid of such strict local party control, Collins had the ability to develop as a politician and pursue her own legislative interests.

Collins increased both her presence and notoriety in the House when she assumed the role of chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) during the 96th Congress (1979–1981). As the second woman to hold the leadership position in the CBC and as the fourth black woman ever to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives, Collins found herself in the spotlight. The high visibility encouraged her to become more outspoken. At one fund-raiser, for instance, Collins voiced the growing disillusionment of the CBC when she declared, “We will no longer wait for political power to be shared with us, we will take it.”13 Members of the CBC praised Collins, citing her ability to lead with fairness and to create an atmosphere that encouraged unity through debates rather than arguments.14 As leader of the CBC, Collins voiced disapproval with President James Earl “Jimmy” Carter’s record on civil rights. She criticized the President for not gathering enough congressional support to pass legislation making the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., a federal holiday. Collins also disparaged the House for its failure to pass the bill, alleging that “racism had a part in it.”15

Throughout her 24 years in Congress, Collins dedicated herself to the advancement of African Americans and other minorities. According to Collins, some federal agencies, such as the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Federal Trade Commission, and the U.S. Justice Department, were not upholding the provisions of the Civil Rights Act requiring agencies that received federal funding to provide information on the scheduling of their affirmative action programs. As the result of her 1985 findings as the chair of the House’s Subcommittee on Government Activities and Transportation, she called for Congress to curb funding to the specific agencies, arguing, “Laws that have been debated and passed by the courts cannot arbitrarily be negated by individuals.” In the 1980s, 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.16 Congresswoman Collins’s push for equality in the aviation industry helped pave the way for an amendment to 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 crusaded against gender and racial inequality in broadcast licensing as well. On several occasions, Collins introduced legislation to preserve Federal Communica-tions Commission policies designed to increase the number of women and minorities owning media companies.17

In an effort to promote equal opportunities for women in sports at colleges and universities, Collins introduced the Equality in Athletic 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. In recognition of her commitment to gender equity in athletics, Collins was inducted into the Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1994.18 Collins also cosponsored the Universal Health Care Act and the Health Security Act in 1993 and urged the National Institutes of Health to focus on the health issues that concern minorities, since “little use has been made of studies on minority prone diseases despite the significant disproportionate array of health conditions.”19 A longtime advocate of increasing breast cancer awareness, Collins drafted legislation to help elderly and disabled women receive Medicare coverage for mammograms and introduced a law designating October as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Collins declined to run for re-election to the 105th Congress (1997–1999). Vowing to remain active in Democratic politics, she nonetheless decided that the time had come to end her career in elective office. Collins cited age as a principal motivation for leaving office, telling reporters, “I’m going to be 65 next year, and that’s the time many people retire.”20 After the completion of her last term, she returned to Chicago, Illinois, and, later, moved to Alexandria, Virginia.

Further Reading

“Collins, Cardiss,” Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, 1774–Present, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=C000634.

Footnotes

  1. “Cardiss Collins,” in Notable Black American Women, edited by Jessie Carney Smith, (Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 2003): 204.
  2. “Cardiss Collins,” Notable Black American Women: 204.
  3. “Rep. George Collins (D-Ill.) Killed in Chicago Jet Crash,” 10 December 1972, Washington Post: B4.
  4. “Cardiss Collins,” Notable Black Women: 205.
  5. Joel Weisman, “Congressman’s Widow Elected in His Place,” 6 June 1973, Washington Post: A7.
  6. Leo M. Snowiss, “Congressional Recruitment and Representation,” American Political Science Review 60 (1966): 628–629.
  7. “House Race Won By Widow,” 18 April 1973, Washington Post: A22.
  8. “Widow Wins a Bid for Husband Seat,” 18 April 1973, New York Times: 42; Andrew H. Malcolm, “Illinois Elects Its First Black Woman to Congress, on 92% of Vote,” 7 June 1973, New York Times: 11; “Election Statistics, 1920 to Present,” http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/index.aspx.
  9. Jacqueline Trescott, “The Coming Out of Cardiss Collins,” 21 September 1979, Washington Post: C1.
  10. “Cardiss Collins,” Notable Black American Women: 205, 208.
  11. “Election Statistics, 1920 to Present,” http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/index.aspx.
  12. Roger Biles, Richard J. Daley: Politics, Race and the Governing of Chicago (DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 1995): 221–222, 232; Politics in America, 1994 (Washington, D.C: Congressional Quarterly Press, 193): 474–475.
  13. Jacqueline Trescott and Elisabeth Bumiller, “The Raucous Caucus,” 24 September 1979, Washington Post: B1.
  14. Trescott, “The Coming Out of Cardiss Collins.”
  15. Politics in America, 1990 (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Inc., 1989): 345.
  16. “Cardiss Collins,” Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 10 (Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group, 2002). Reproduced in the Biography Resource Center, http://www.galenet.com/servlet/biorc; see also Congressional Record, House, 99th Cong., 1st sess. (26 February 1985): E633.
  17. Congressional Record, House, 102nd Cong., 1st sess. (3 January 1991): E32.
  18. Karen Foerstel, Biographical Dictionary of Congressional Women (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999): 63; “Colleges Told to Publish Sports Costs,” 3 December 1995, New York Times: 37.
  19. “Cardiss Collins,” Contemporary Black Biography.
  20. “A Chicago Democrat is Quitting Congress,” 9 November 1995, New York Timess: B14.