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Transcript of full Darlene Harris interview

BY OLIVIA WINSLOW | olivia.winslow@newsday.com

My name is Darlene D. Harris. I'm 42 years old. I was born in New York City, N.Y., and I currently reside in Uniondale. I've resided here well over 30 years. And I am currently an administrative law judge for the City of New York as well as an attorney in private practice and a Star hearing officer.

Q: Your father is a well-known minister on Long Island, an activist. What about your activism? Was politics your first entry into kind of the larger world and seeking to change, or was there anything prior to your milestone election in 1996?

Harris: It's funny that you would mention my dad, he probably was a catalyst, him and my mom; they've always been public servants, always involved, whether they were Girl Scout leader, Boy Scout leader, involved in the church. Always active in the community, running for office. My dad ran for school board here in Uniondale. He was the head of his union. Bishop Harris has a church, Grace Cathedral in Uniondale. He ran for assemblyman at one point in time, so actually, through him is how I got involved in politics. I even ran for [a seat on the] school board once in Uniondale myself.

Q: Tell us about your entry into politics. Was school board the first?

Harris: I ran for the school board several years before I actually ran for the County Legislature in 1995.

Q: Tell us about why you wanted to do that.

Harris: Again, it's my whole family was brought up about learning to be active and involved and give back to the community. Uniondale is where I grew up, and I just wanted to see it flourish as it always has been. I'm a member of Kiwanis, Uniondale Kiwanis. I was on the executive board of Hempstead NAACP, I've been involved in 100 Black Women. I'm a lifetime member of NAACP now, as well as my mom is a lifetime member. It's been my family's goal to give back to our community. My brother just got elected as fire commissioner in Uniondale. My brother's now the superintendent in the Roosevelt School District [another brother, Robert-Wayne Harris]. So my family is just very active in the community. Even with the church, Grace Cathedral, we're constantly making sure that we're out there in the community, our senior citizen programs at Holly Patterson, making sure that we are seen and active in trying to keep, you know, gangs off the street, giving programs. We have a multicultural center for children, we have activities to stay off the street. That's always been my focus and that was the focus I had while I was in office: to be a public servant and serve and give back to the community...

Q: Tell us about the history making election in 1995, the significance for you personally and the larger African-American community, if you feel it was so.

Harris: Well, certainly I was very proud to serve as the first African-American female to be elected to Nassau County government. And as for our community, it was a first opportunity for us to really have a voice, a say, with regard to what was going on in Nassau County government. So it was very, very significant.

Q: What about for the larger African-American community as a whole; 1996 is when this took place. What does that say that it took so long?

Harris: 1996 is not long ago, we're talking about 12 years ago, and you would've thought we had made bigger and better strides before then. But Nassau County, it took a little while to catch up. A lot of communities I'm sure had representation much earlier than we came around [to] in Nassau County. Of course in New York City they had plenty of councilmen that represented them way before 1996. So this was a very, very big stride and significant step. And the fact that it took so long is something that the community, we fought very hard for, and we were very happy that we finally succeeded in making it happen.

Q: And why was it important to get black representation on a countywide body?

Harris: Well, I can say myself -- a lot of the things I was able to accomplish while I was in office and I don't see it happen without having that voice. Some people may think it may not be as significant, but right here in Uniondale, on Uniondale Avenue, there was a location where there had been several fatalities. And the Uniondale Community Council had constantly been fighting for some, maybe 30 years, to try to get a traffic light at that intersection. A traffic light costs at least $60,000. But while I was in office not only at that area, but several other areas in different communities, I was able to get a quarter of a million dollars in just safety-traffic devices in our community. If you don't have that voice how can you make sure that our county tax dollars that we pay as well is getting back to serve our community, as well as different organizations that existed in all our communities: Operation Pride, Roosevelt I AM Corporation, again, as I say, Uniondale Community Council, Hempstead's different organizations, Boys and Girls Clubs -- all these different clubs that were functioning and trying to do things to keep our children off the street didn't have funding. That was another thing I was able to do while I was in office, to get, just in my first term alone, $700,000 out to at least 40 different organizations to help assist them promoting programs for our young people. And that has always been a big thing for me. I currently even serve as law guardian now in Nassau County Family Court. I love children and I really want to see them succeed in life. And if they have nothing else to do that's when they get in trouble. So it's very important to me that they have these outlets, venues and we have different programs in our communities that are trying to do that, but they didn't have the help, they didn't have the support, they didn't have the funding, which was one of the things that I was able to get done.

Q: You represented, as a Republican, the First Legislative District. Heavily minority, I'm assuming.

Harris: Yes.

Q: So when you're talking about getting young people programs, etc, you're talking about minority communities for the most part.

Harris: Basically, I represented all of Uniondale, all of Roosevelt, all of North Freeport and portions of Baldwin and portions of Hempstead and a small area of East Meadow.

Q: Your constituency were minorities?

Harris: For the most part, yes.

Q: So you're seeking to help other black people, for the most part? Is that how you saw your job?