Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, as Told By Those Who Know Her

As District officials, residents, activists and everyone else in between attempt to push back against the Trump administration’s blatant infringement on home rule, questions persist about D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton’s (D) whereabouts. 

Norton, now in her 18th term as the District’s nonvoting congressional delegate, has been mostly silent since President Donald J. Trump’s federalization of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), other than press releases about her inquiries into National Guard deployment to the District and her introduction of a measure for body-worn cameras on federal officers.

Despite The Washington Informer’s best efforts, Norton, via her director of communications Sharon Eliza Nichols, declined an interview. However, there are many people with whom Norton worked and interacted with for decades, who are working to uplift the District delegates work and legacy.

One of those people — Frank Smith — said District residents, and the youth in particular, have much to learn from Norton’s life and professional journey, especially at a time when the future looks bleak.

“First, they gotta try to get some schooling for themselves,” said Smith, founding director of the African-American Civil War Museum. “Second, they have to apply themselves…where people could see you are committed, serious, and [will] work hard to fight for them. Congresswoman Norton was able to do that, and that’s what it takes to serve in office. You have to be compassionate and care about people. You have to believe that the government can be a force for good.” 

By the time Smith met Norton during Mississippi Freedom Summer in 1964, he had already spent two years as a young civil rights organizer in The Magnolia State. That’s where members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) were hard at work helping Black residents register to vote. 

As Smith recounted, Norton, then a Yale law student, counted among several young legal scholars who clamored for the opportunity to effect change in the epicenter of Jim Crow. 

“It was kind of interesting because the law students were all excited and curious,” Smith said. “They very much wanted to be a part of the process.” 

Smith said Norton would ultimately make her mark by using the legal knowledge she had already accumulated to help a comrade in need. 

“She just happened to be there when Fannie Lou Hamer ended up put in jail in Winona, Mississippi that summer,” Smith told The Informer. “I was tasked with going over to get her out of jail and I told her I need my legal counsel to go with me, and so [Eleanor] and I went over and had the experience of going over two times to get them out.”

After law school, Norton worked as a law clerk to Federal District Court Judge A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., and later an assistant legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union. She broke barriers in 1977, becoming the first female head of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission when President Jimmy Carter nominated her for the position. 

In 1990, Norton defeated former D.C. Councilmember Betty Ann Kane in the Democratic Primary for the D.C. delegate seat after Walter Fauntroy launched a mayoral bid. She clinched nearly 40% of the vote in the primary contest, and nearly 60% during the general election. 

Since taking office in 1991, Norton has never lost reelection.  

“She had a curious combination of being somebody who was from D.C. and who had served in the Civil Rights Movement in the deep South. And so she had paid her dues, you might say, and earned her spurs,” Smith told The Informer. “She had a well-stacked resume before she came back here to run for Congress. And so the voters here were really able to replace Congressman Fauntroy…with Norton who had been active in the Deep South with SNCC and a number of other people here in D.C. including Marion Barry, John A. Wilson, David Clarke, Douglass Moore, and others who had known her for years.” 

As a House member without a vote, Norton leveraged relationships with white liberal colleagues representing portions of neighboring Maryland and Virginia, along with several blue states. Smith, who served as a D.C. council member during the 1980s and 1990s, said Norton made similar alliances with Black colleagues— including SNCC comrade the late Congressman John Lewis (D-Ga.).  

Such a strategy, Smith said, paved the way for the passage of legislation that Norton championed on behalf of D.C. residents— including House Resolution 320, which allowed for the establishment of the African-American Civil War Museum on federal land. 

The museum, accompanied by a Civil War memorial bearing the name of 209,145 African-American Union troops, would later open in 1998. 

“First bill she got passed to Congress,” Smith told The Informer. “And I’m happy to say we turned it into reality with the African American Civil War Memorial Museum that is sitting there today.” 

In 2019, The African-American Civil War Memorial and Museum started undergoing renovations. The museum is scheduled to reopen on Nov. 11. Smith said that events leading up to the grand reopening will pay homage to President Abraham Lincoln and George Washington Williams, the latter of whom served as a Union soldier and advocated for the construction of a civil war memorial.  

“The job [was] started by George Washington Williams,” Smith told The Informer. “With the help of Eleanor Holmes Norton, we managed to finish the job.” 

Sheila Bunn Speaks About the ‘Warrior on the Hill’

During her congressional career, Norton garnered a reputation as D.C.’s “Warrior on the Hill.” 

Key accomplishments include the expansion of District home rule to include budget autonomy. During the latter part of the 1990s, Norton also secured the passage of the D.C. College Act, which established the D.C. Tuition Assistance Program, commonly referred to as DCTAG. 

At the turn of the 21st century, after the shutdown of Lorton Correction Complex, and shipping of D.C. prisoners into the federal correctional system, Norton negotiated for the relocation of the incarcerated District residents to federal facilities close to home. In the years and decades that followed, she continued to advance District statehood, with legislation, as recently as 2021, left to die in the Senate after approval by the House.  

Sheila Bunn, a D.C. politico and former Norton staffer, told The Informer that Norton had confidence that bolstered her ability to negotiate with political colleagues and nemeses alike. 

“There’s no fear with her when it comes to talking to other members of Congress, especially white men,” Bunn said. “It was a no-holds-barred. That’s how she was so successful over the years because for her, being the delegate for D.C. was not just a job or position for her. D.C. is her hometown.” 

In 1995, a chance encounter with one of Norton’s staffers at the Cherry Blossom Festival led Bunn to an interview with the Warrior on the Hill herself. Bunn clinched a role as a scheduler before rising in rank. 

By the time Bunn left Capitol Hill in 2011, she had 16 years of experience under her belt, having served as Norton’s chief of staff and working alongside Donna Brazile and current D.C. Council members Robert White (D-At large) and Kenyan McDuffie (I-At large). 

Bunn counted among her most memorable experiences her trips with Norton throughout the District. 

She said weekly “Government on the Go” events allowed Norton time to directly speak to District residents and keep them abreast of the latest developments in the House. As Bunn recalled, Norton also brought services to District communities and conducted congressional art shows where young people won scholarships to undergraduate art programs. 

“She always instilled in us that you can introduce or get passed as much legislation as you want, but if you are not able to help people with their common problems or their common issues, it doesn’t mean a thing,” Bunn said about Norton. “So she is big on constituent services and making sure not only is she working on legislation that changes lives, but also making sure, where federal issues are concerned, that she’s providing the best constituent services as possible.” 

Earlier this year, while running in the Ward 8 D.C. Council special election, Bunn and several other District residents brought the District to Capitol Hill when they lobbied House and Senate leaders for the release of the District’s $1.1 billion that House Republicans froze in a continuing resolution. 

The mother of a high school student, Bunn said that, well before Republicans threw the District’s budget into a state of limbo, she used lessons she learned from Norton to navigate the political realm while running a council campaign and juggling parenthood.  

“[Norton’s] older child has Down syndrome, so you got to witness the parent side, the human side. You don’t just get to see the workaholic,” Bunn told The Informer. “You got to see that softer side of her.” 

These days, Bunn serves as an add-on committee member with the D.C. Democratic Party. That role allowed her, as recently as the 2024 presidential election, to convey the importance of D.C. statehood to Democrats from other states. Though she acknowledges her late father, James Bunn, as her master teacher in civic engagement, Bunn said that Norton emphasized the importance of coalition building in the furtherance of a goal. 

“I learned that you got to stand up and fight, even if it’s you by yourself,” Bunn said. “It’s also about being able to galvanize other people to join your calls to show them the importance of why you need to push back against these attacks. Making sure that people understand that statehood, voting rights, all of that is at its basis a civil rights issue.” 

Kymone Freeman Says It’s Time for Norton to Pass the Baton 

Throughout her long tenure in Congress, Norton hasn’t been without her critics — including Kymone Freeman, co-founder of We Act Radio.

In stating his qualms about her record, Freeman said Norton didn’t act voraciously enough about the closure of Columbia Hospital for Women and D.C. General. Freeman also questioned the degree to which Norton held her colleagues accountable to their agreement that convicted District residents serve their federal sentence close to home. 

“It has to be within driving distance [but] under her tenure, that has not been enforced,” Freeman told The Informer. “Making D.C. inmates go all over the country — Florida, Pennsylvania, Colorado — and these poor people are not able to see their loved ones. It further destroys families and cements the disconnection of family bonds because of that incarceration.” 

Norton’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the status of incarcerated D.C. residents. 

Freeman expressed plans to run for Norton’s seat in 2026. This run will follow his unsuccessful 2024 attempt to unseat the delegate, who he said has been complicit in the U.S.’ financing of the genocide in Gaza. 

As Freeman recounted, Norton declined to sign on to a demand for a ceasefire, telling him during their face-to-face encounter that doing so would be premature. 

“We both shared the same mentor [in] Dr. Dorothy Height, who led not one, but two delegations to the World Conference on Racism in 2001 in South Africa,” Freeman said. “And the only countries in the entire world that walked out of that conference in attendance were America and Israel over this very issue. So her position on this policy was made clear, and for [ Norton] to deviate from that and capitulate to establishment Democrats…was unacceptable.” 

Throughout much of the second Trump presidency, Freeman has counted among those on D.C. streets, standing up against what many call the most intense infringement on D.C. home rule in 50 years. While he expressed appreciation for Norton’s service, Freeman told The Informer that, in the current political climate, District residents deserve a more radical warrior on the Hill. 

“If we don’t have a vote, we should have a voice, and that voice should be a radical voice that’s fighting for us, not someone that’s trying to make friends on Capitol Hill,” Freeman said. “That is passe. She’s done it for four decades. It’s a valid effort on her part, but it’s a wasted effort when we look [at] her efforts and apply that conventional wisdom going forward.”