Former US Labour Secretary Alexis Herman became the first African/American to hold that office when she was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1997.

It was another ground-breaking step for the Alabama woman whose career achievements make up an impressive list of championing minority workers rights, particularly those of women and other demographic groups.

At the age of 29 she had already so established herself within the field of employment rights’ that she was chosen by US President Jimmy Carter to become the youngest director of the Woman’s Bureau of the Labour Department.

Ms Herman’s experience and insight into the empowerment of minority groups in the workforce was one of the reasons she was chosen as a keynote speaker by the Bermuda International Business Association for its general meeting at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess Hotel.

As reported in Saturday’s Royal Gazette, Ms Herman identified three critical areas on which she felt Bermuda should concentrate to further improve its standing as one of the world’s leading financial centres, namely; education and training of its young people, diversity within the workplace at all levels, and a sensible immigration policy.

But what was it that caused her to become such a champion for employment rights and empowerment of minority groups in the workplace?

In a one-to-one interview she explained the moment when, as a 15-year-old, she first stood up to the unfairness of segregation she found in her own life.

Her father was already the first elected African/American in the US deep south so Ms Herman had a grounding in the struggles he and the local African/American community faced.

She was a student at the Heart of Mary Catholic high school at a time when the schools were segregated by race.

“It was all black and white,” she explained. “At the annual May Day celebration all the schools came together and we had a pageant where you crowned the Blessed Virgin Mary, but there had never been a black person who crowned the Blessed Virgin Mary.

“And the schools were always segregated. We marched onto the field. The white schools went first and the black schools always went behind. There were always pictures in the newspaper and the names of the schools that participated but we were never in the newspaper and our names were never mentioned. I could not understand that as we were one of the schools in the diocese.

“That night, when we were all on the field and the bishops were leaving the stadium, I excused myself to go to the bathroom. But instead of going to the bathroom I slipped into the bishops’ dressing room and hid under the table and waited for them to come back.”

When the bishops returned the young Ms Herman lost her courage and stayed beneath the table until one of the bishops heard a noise and investigated. The teenager ran from under the table and knelt at the feet of one of the bishops.

“I looked up at him and I poured out all of my questions and I asked him why were we treated so unfairly and why did we have segregation?” she said. “It just did not seem in keeping with the teaching of the faith. No-one answered me.”

The next day she was called into the principal’s office at school on account of her actions the previous evening and was expelled.

“My exclusion ended up rallying my community and my parents — especially my father — so when I walked, everyone walked. The end of the story is we came together as a community, we worked through our differences and we desegregated. I was 15, that shows it is never too early to take a stand for what is right. That was the moment when a light bulb went off in my head and I thought ‘wow, this really can work’.”

During her visit to the Island, Ms Herman met Finance Minster Paula Cox and Finance Secretary Donald Scott and also spoke with students and business leaders.

The use of the term “affirmative action” — a corrective measure used by the US government to address social injustices against demographic groups said to be subjected to discrimination in employment, education and other areas — is not one Ms Herman uses.

She said: “The term has taken on a lot of emotional overtones, and people forget what the intent was behind the legislation. What the movement has been across most progressive nations today has been to take positive measures. I do not even use the term, I talk about positive measures, positive steps to make sure you are doing the work to be inclusive and that you are representative of the workforce that you employ and that you are going to be increasingly sensitive to the diverse workers of the future.

“I think we have had success in the US, but it is still a work in progress. In the beginning for us it was simply about getting your foot in the door, today the challenges are much more about development at the senior levels of an organisation and what you do to develop that and retain that talent and not just to recruit that talent.

“So it has evolved in different ways and at different stages, but overall I think it is necessary to have practices and policies in place that help us to do what we have to do to ensure inclusion and fairness.”

Ms Herman believes that, like the US, Bermuda needs to improve the positive measures in this regard at senior levels of business and to “make sure you attract diverse talent by having opportunities for promotion into senior levels.”

She added: “Bermuda has done exceptionally well. You have a stable government and tax laws that attract investors. but its is about what you have to do beyond financial acumen to keep growing and meeting challenges.

“We have to invest in skills and development of our workers for the future, to begin to see diversity as not just the right thing to do but the smart thing to do, and lastly I believe in the wake of 9/11 the influence and application of immigration policy on competitiveness is perhaps more important than ever before.”