And yet in 1999 – after a year in D.C., where she and Tubbs
Jones were roommates – Fudge decided to run for office
back home and won the mayoral race in Warrensville Heights,
becoming that city’s first Black and first woman leader.
Then in 2008, Tubbs Jones died unexpectedly of a
brain aneurysm. Urged by local Democratic leaders and
friends to run, Fudge won the special election to succeed
Tubbs Jones – and kept running. Fudge has worked to
both honor her friend’s legacy and forge
a path of her own, advocating for issues
such as voting rights and food programs for
those in need. During more than a decade
in Congress, she chaired the Congressional
Black Caucus and then the 2016 Democratic
National Convention. In 2018, Fudge openly
considered challenging Nancy Pelosi for the
House Speaker role, only to endorse her
fellow Democrat days later.
“I think about Stephanie often as I go
During more than a decade in Congress,
Fudge chaired the Congressional Black Caucus and
then the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
In 2018, Fudge openly considered challenging
Nancy Pelosi for the House Speaker role, only to
endorse her fellow Democrat days later.
through this journey,” Fudge says. “I think she would be as
happy for me as I was for her during her entire career.”
Fudge is now one of only a handful of Black women
who have held an executive-level cabinet position.
These include Kamala Harris, Condoleezza Rice (G.W.
Bush), Patricia Roberts Harris (Carter), and Hazel O’Leary
(Clinton). But for the most part, Fudge says she doesn’t
spend a lot of time thinking about the journey she’s taken
or the barriers she has broken through. For one thing,
she’s too busy with her work and on recruiting future
generations of public servants.
“I don’t think about being the first other than to the
degree that I don’t believe that I should be the last,” she
says. “It drives me to bring somebody else along. It really
drives me to try to mentor younger people. Over the many
years that I’ve been at this, public service has gotten a
bad rap with a lot of young people. I’m going to tell young
people that this is a career, this is a profession. This is
something that is needed in this country.”
So it was no surprise that Fudge invited her soon-tobe
successor in Congress, 46-year-old Shontel Brown, to
accompany her to the 50th reunion party and meet her
Shaker classmates. Still, Fudge – with two security officers
watching over her inside the restaurant and two outside –
was the main attraction.
“People were genuinely interested in finding out what
precisely Marcia is doing at HUD, and what it was like to
serve in Congress and what it’s like working with Joe Biden
and being in his cabinet,” says Peter Lawson Jones. “Those
topics weren’t off limits at all. She’s still fun-loving and
has a quick laugh and quick smile, but make no mistake,
she is a serious human being,” he says. “And some of that
adultness, that maturity, was on display and discernible
when she was in high school.”
Reunion chair Godbold was just happy to see her old
friend among the 100-plus attendees at the reunion that
night. She has known Fudge since the seventh grade and
played high school sports with both her and Jane Campbell.
During the festivities, Godbold made a point of referring to
both of them by the titles they have earned: Campbell as
“Madame Mayor” and Fudge as “Madame Secretary.”
“But one on one,” says Godbold, “she’s still Marcia.” SL
A turn to politics
Fudge (front row, third
from left) with the women
of the Congressional Black
Caucus, 2014.
11th Congressional District
Annual Community Caucus
Labor Day Parade.
Congressional
campaign
fundraiser,
2011.
Sworn in as mayor of Warrensville
Heights, 2000, with Stephanie
Tubbs Jones and Fudge’s cousin,
Christoper Knox.
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