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
Washington Collins, after his death in 1972, Cardiss Collins
continued his legacy as a loyal politician in the Chicago
Democratic organization directed by Mayor Richard Daley.
One of only a handful of women to serve in Congress
for more than 20 years, and the only Black woman in
the chamber for six years, Representative Collins was 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 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 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. Attending night classes at
Northwestern University, 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 as an auditor until her election to Congress.
Robertson 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.2
On November 3, 1970, George Collins won
both a special and a general election to fill a U.S. House seat
representing Chicago that was vacant following the death of
Illinois Representative Daniel John Ronan. In his two terms
in Congress, Collins served on the House Government
Operations and Public Works Committees. As a World
War II veteran, the Democratic Representative worked to
improve conditions for 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 another 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 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
Independent Angel Moreno, with a convincing 92 percent
of the vote.8
Although she was eager to continue the work begun
by her husband in Congress, Collins first set out to learn
and master the legislative process. Her lack of political
experience, exacerbated by her entrance midterm, led to
unfamiliarity with congressional procedures. During her
early tenure, Collins often relied upon her colleagues in the
House to teach her more about the basic rules of Congress.
Collins also had to overcome her reserved demeanor. A few
years after taking office, she noted, “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 safety in air travel 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), chairing the Commerce,
Consumer Protection, and Competitiveness Subcommittee
in the 102nd and the 103rd Congresses (1991–1995).
Additionally, Collins was 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 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.10 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.11 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 Daley in 1976.12 She proved resilient
without the influential machine that helped launch her
congressional career; devoid of its strict control, Collins
was able to develop as a politician and to pursue her own
legislative interests.
During the 96th Congress (1979–1981), Collins became
the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC),
augmenting both her influence and her standing in the
House. As only 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, Collins found herself in the
spotlight. The high visibility of her position encouraged
her to become more outspoken. At one fundraiser, Collins
voiced the growing disillusionment of the CBC, declaring,
“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 chairwoman, Collins voiced
disapproval with President Jimmy Carter’s record on civil
rights. She criticized the President for failing to gather
enough congressional support to pass legislation making
Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday 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 their affirmative action programs.
Her 1985 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.” 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 Representative 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 also crusaded 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 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 women and women with
disabilities 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, where she died on February 3, 2013,
at the age of 81.21
View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
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