C. DELORES TUCKER (OCTOBER 4, 1927 – OCTOBER 12, 2005 )

C. DeLores Tucker (born Cynthia DeLores Nottage) was a U.S. politician, civil rights activist, and child advocate best known for her participation in the Civil Rights Movement and her stance against gangsta rap music. 

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Born in Philadelphia to a minister and a “Christian feminist mother” on October 4, 1927, she was the tenth of eleven children. Ms. Tucker attended Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania–Wharton School. In 1951, she married William “Bill” Tucker, a successful Philadelphia real estate agent and she herself worked in real estate and insurance sales early in her career. (Later in life she was the recipient of two honorary doctoral degrees from Morris College in Sumter, South Carolina and Villa Maria College in Pennsylvania, and for this reason, she is sometimes referred to as “Dr. Tucker”).  (1)

She was a force to be reckoned with in the Civil Rights Movement.

 

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C. DeLores Tucker never backed down from political hot-potato  issues. A longtime civil rights activist, she marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. participating in the famous March on Selma (Alabama) in 1965, she was a close personal friend of Coretta Scott King, and she raised funds for the NAACP. Mrs. Tucker spent her life guided by her deep convictions. She showed her tenacity in not bowing to the deletrious effects that Jane Crow segregation sought in trying to cripple Mrs. Tucker’s aspirations in life, as the following except shows:

 

“Tucker’s household and community infused so much support and positive energy into her upbringing that she later said she had been unaware of racism at all until relatively late in adolescence, when she was the only African American in her ninth-grade class. Planning to become a physician, Tucker worked in local hospitals during the summers, and when she graduated from Girls’ High in Philadelphia, her father took her to the Bahamas as a treat. On the ship, Tucker realized that minority passengers were given substandard, segregated berths, and refused such accommodations. Instead she spent the night outside on the ship’s deck, and shortly afterward was diagnosed with tuberculosis. The serious illness restricted her to a sickbed for an entire year, and her plans for medical school were dashed.”  SOURCE

Her strong will and organizing skills brought her to the attention of those in power. In 1971 she became the highest-ranking Black American government employee in Pennsylvania when she accepted the governor’s appointment as the secretary of state. In the 1980s she co-founded the National Political Congress of Black Women (which later left out the word political, becoming the NCBW),  formed to advance the interests of the Black community, especially Black women. The group devised a 10-point covenant plan to reclaim and improve the Black American community–focusing on voter registration, education quality and equity, welfare reform that would not victimize poor people, and fair and adequate legal services for everyone.  She became chairwoman of the organization after the retirement of the late, great Shirley Chisholm, a group that she led from 1992 until her death and which continues to push for women’s rights.  (2)

Mrs. Tucker’s experience in real estate and later from being in business with her husband helped prepare her for dealing with the bureacracy of a city like Philadelphia, especially where it came to zoning laws, and started her on more forays into the world of civil rights. Her selection by Mayor James H.J. Tate to serve on the Philadelphia Zoning Commission in 1968 was the first of several prestigious political appointments, including vice chair of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party (1970) and in the following year, Secretary of State of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  In 1976 she became vice chair of the National Association of Secretaries of State, and in 1984 chair of the Democratic National Committee’s Black Caucus:

 

“She became the first African American and first female member of Philadelphia Zoning Board, and as the civil rights movement began in earnest in the late 1950s, she discovered more and more outlets into which she could channel her talents. She took part in the major civil-rights actions of the day, participated in the 1965 White House Conference on Civil Rights with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and after his 1968 assassination founded the Martin Luther King Jr. Association for Non-Violence. She was a founding member of the National Women’s Caucus, and a co-founder of the Black Women’s Political Caucus. For a time she also served as vice-president of the Pennsylvania NAACP.”  SOURCE

Over the next several years, Mrs. Tucker attempted several runs for office, but was far more effective as a fundraiser and organizer for other Black American political persons, most notably she worked in Rev. Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign in 1984.

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But, to this day, she is more well-known for her defiant stance and untiring fight against the demeaning, degrading, and misogynistic lyrics of gangsta rap.

Mrs. Tucker took up the challenge of bringing forth to the public’s knowledge the detrimental effects of gangsta rap after noticing the effect it was having on her nieces and nephews, and how gangsta rap would yield devastating consequences for the Black community. She turned her attention on the two biggest gansta rappers at that time:  Snoopy Dog and Tupac Shakur.

As a profound rhetor, and dressed elegantly in her soon-to-become signature turbans, Mrs. Tucker quickly became noticed in her fiery crusade to end gansta rap. Passing out leaflets that contained the lyrics of rap songs, she sought in her grassroot campaign to call people’s attention to the fact that gangsta rap was a negative element to be dismantled. But, this was only the beginning.

With her experience from honing her skills during the CRM, she took her fight all the way to the boardroom of the conglomerate that packaged, marketed and sold this type of music to America’s youth:   Time-Warner, Inc.

In 1995, Mrs. Tucker bought stock in Time-Warner, Inc., enabling her to gain entrance to the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting, giving her a voice in taking it to task for the filth it labeled as music. There, in meetings, she took to the  microphone and challenged the executives to read aloud the lyrics from albums sold by Interscope Records, a distributor owned in part by Time Warner.

 

“Time Warner Inc. is bracing itself in New York today for an onslaught of complaints regarding the firm’s involvement in controversial rap music as stockholders gather for the media giant’s annual shareholders’ meeting.

Rap critic C. Delores Tucker, chairwoman of the National Political Congress of Black Women, and stockholders associated with William Bennett, former secretary of education, are expected to confront the Time Warner board about the firm’s continued role in distributing allegedly violent and sexually degrading music.

“We’re calling on the people who run Time Warner to stop putting out these horrible lyrics,” said Bennett, whose Empower America organization will air TV commercials blasting Time Warner’s rap stance this weekend on cable stations in Los Angeles, New York and Washington. “There are many decent people in this country trying to raise families, and this vulgar trash is harmful to children.”

In 1992, the company’s annual meeting became a forum for shareholder protest about rap music lyrics. This year it is expected to be among a number of questions raised about the direction being taken by the debt-burdened entertainment conglomerate.” (3)

But, Tupac Shakur took umbrage with Mrs. Tucker’s war on gansta rap:

 

“Who do these fools think they’re kidding?” said Shakur, whose new album includes specific references to Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and C. DeLores Tucker, chief of the National Political Congress of Black Women, who launched the anti-rap campaign last year that pressured Time Warner to sever its ties with Interscope.

“If these people actually cared about protecting the children like they say they do, they’d spend more time trying to improve the conditions in the ghettos where the kids are coming up,” Shakur said.

Shakur’s and other artists’ contempt for rap critics starts with Time Warner, where top executives and shareholders last year privately lambasted the urban violence depicted in music released by Death Row.

Time Warner may have washed its hands of the rap controversy in September, but that didn’t stop the media giant from angling to cash in this week on Shakur’s latest blockbuster.

Time Warner refused to distribute the album and its logo is nowhere to be found on Shakur’s album, but the corporation quietly exercised a contract option to manufacture the record, allowing it to collect a quick $5 million from Interscope in production fees. (PolyGram distributed the album in a deal negotiated long before Interscope joined MCA Inc. this week.)

Rap supporters say Time Warner’s hypocrisy doesn’t end with its involvement in the Shakur project.

*

They say Time Warner has already pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars in publishing profit from Tha Dogg Pound’s “Dogg Food,” a controversial album that the company refused to manufacture or distribute after rap critics attacked it during the months leading up to the Interscope divorce.

And thanks to a lucrative long-term publishing pact signed last year with Death Row Chief Executive Suge Knight, gangsta rap lyrics from Tha Dogg Pound and other rap stars are guaranteed to generate profit for Time Warner long into the next century.”  (4)

The attack against Mrs. Tucker was on.

Tupac defamed her in two of his songs, “How Do U Want It?” from the album, All Eyez on Me, in which Shakur rapped ” C.DeLores Tucker you’s a motherfucker / Instead of trying to help a nigga you destroy a brother”.  On another track “Wonda Why They Call U Bitch” from the same album, Tupac further slandered Mrs. Tucker.

 

How do you want it? How does it feel?
Comin up as a nigga in the cash game
livin in the fast lane; I’m for real
How do you want it? How do you feel?
Comin up as a nigga in the cash game
livin in the fast lane; I’m for real

[Verse One: 2Pac]

Love the way you activate your hips and push your as* out
Got a nigga wantin it so bad I’m bout to pass out
Wanna dig you, and I can’t even lie about it
Baby just alleviate your clothes, time to fly up out it
Catch you at a club, oh sh*t you got me fiendin
Body talkin sh*t to me but I can’t comprehend the meaning
Now if you wanna roll with me, then here’s your chance
Doin eighty on the freeway, police catch me if you can
Forgive me i’m a rider, still I’m just a simple man
All I want is money, f**k the fame I’m a simple man
Mr. International, playa with the passport
Just like Aladdin bit*h, get you anything you ask for
It’s either him or me — champagne, Hennessey
A favorite of my homies when we floss, on our enemies
Witness as we creep to a low speed, peep what a hoe need
Puff some mo’ weed, funk, ya don’t need
Approachin hoochies with a passion, been a long day
But I’ve been driven by attraction in a strong way
Your body is bangin baby I love it when you flaunt it
Time to give it to daddy nigga now tell me how you want it
(Tell me how you want it! La-dy, yeahhhyeah)

[Chorus]

[Verse Two: 2Pac]

Tell me is it cool to f**k?
Did you think I come to talk am I a fool or what?
Positions on the floor it’s like erotic, ironic
cause I’m somewhat psychotic
I’m hittin switches on bit*hes like I been fixed with hydraulics
Up and down like a roller coaster, I’m up inside ya
I ain’t quittin til the show is over, cause I’ma rider
In and out just like a robbery, I’ll probably be a freak
and let you get on top of me, get her rockin these
Nights full of Alize, a livin legend
You ain’t heard about these niggaz play these Cali days
Delores Tucker, youse a motherf**ker
Instead of tryin to help a nigga you destroy a brother
Worse than the others — Bill Clinton, Mr. Bob Dole
You’re too old to understand the way the game is told
You’re lame so I gotta hit you with the hot facts
Want some on lease? I’m makin millions, niggaz top that
They wanna censor me; they’d rather see me in a cell
livin in hell — only a few of us’ll live to tell
Now everybody talkin bout us I could give a f**k
I’d be the first one to bomb and cuss
Nigga tell me how you want it

[Chorus]

[Verse Three: 2Pac]

Raised as a youth, tell the truth I got the scoop
on how to get a bulletproof, because I jumped from the roof
before I was a teenager, mobile phone, SkyPager
Game rules, I’m livin major — my adversaries
is lookin worried, they paranoid of gettin buried
One of us gon’ see the cemetary
My only hope to survive if I wish to stay alive
Gettin high, see the demons in my eyes, before I die
I wanna live my life and ball, make a couple million
And then I’m chillin fade em all, these taxes
got me crossed up and people tryin to sue me
Media is in my business and they actin like they know me
Hahaha, but I’ma mash out, peel out
I’m with it quick I’se quick to whip that f**kin steel out
Yeah nigga it’s some new sh*t so better get up on it
When ya see me tell a nigga how ya want it
How do you want it?

[Chorus 2X]

[2Pac]
How you want it?
Yeah my nigga Johnny J
Yeah, we out

[Chorus]

[2Pac]
Tell me

[Chorus]

[2Pac]
Cash game, livin in the fast lane, I’m for real

You wonda why they call U bitch
You wonda why they call U bitch.
You wonda why they call U bitch
You wonda why they call U bitch.
You wonda why they call U bitch
You wonda why they call U bitch.

Verse One: 2Pac

Look here Miss Thang
hate to salt your game
but yous a money hungry woman
and you need to change.

In tha locker room
all the homies do is laugh.
High five’s ’cause anotha nigga
played your ass.

It was said you were sleeezy
even easy
sleepin around for what
you need

See it’s your thang
and you can shake it how you wanna.
Give it up free
or make your money on the corner.

But don’t be bad and play the game
get mad and change.
Then you wonda why these muthafuckas
call you names.

Still lookin’ for a way out
and that’s OK
I can see you wanna stray
there’s a way out.

Keep your mind on your money,
enroll in school.
And as the years pass by
you can show them fools.

But you ain’t tryin’ to hear me
’cause your stuck,
you’re headin’ for the bathroom
’bout to get tossed up.

Still lookin’ for a rich man
you dug a ditch,
got your legs up
tryin’ to get rich.

I love you like a sista
but you need to switch
and that’s why they called
U bitch, I betcha.

Chorus

Verse Two: 2Pac

You leave your kids with your mama
’cause your headin’ for the club
in a skin tight miniskirt
lookin’ for some love.

Got them legs wide open
while you’re sittin’ at the bar
Talkin’ to some nigga
’bout his car.

I guess he said he
had a Lexxxus, what’s next?
You headin’ to his car for some sex

I pass by
can’t hold back tears inside
’cause, lord knows
for years I tried.

And all the other people
on my block hate your guts
Then you wonda why they stare
and call you slut.

It’s like your mind don’t understand
you don’t have to kill your
dreams ploten’
schemes on a man

Keep your head up, legs closed, eyes open
either a nigga wear a rubber or he die smokin’
I’m hearin’ rumors so you need to switch
and niggas wouldn’t call you bitch, I betcha.

Chorus

Verse Three: 2Pac

I guess times gettin’ hard
even harder for you
’cause, hey now, got a baby
on the way now

More money from the county
and thanks to the welfare
you’re about to
get your hair done.

Got a dinner date
can’t be late
trick or treat, sweet thang
got anotha trick to meet.

The way he did it
it was smooth
plottin’ while he gamin’ you
So baby, peep tha rules.

I shoulda seen it in the first case
the worst case
I shoulda never called you back
in the first place.

I remember back in high school
baby you was fast
straight sex
and barely move your ass.

But now things change
’cause you don’t look the same
let the ghetto get the best of you
baby, that’s a shame

Caught HIV and now you ’bout to be deceased
and finally be in peace.

So where your niggas at now
’cause everybody left
they stepped
and left you on your own

See I loved you like a sista
but you died to quick
And that’s why we called U bitch, I betcha.

Chorus

Outro: 2Pac

Dear Ms. Deloris Tucker
keep stressen me
fuckin’ with a muthafucken mind
I figured you wanted to know
you know
why we call them hos bitches
and maybe this might help you understand
it ain’t personal
strictly business baby
strictly business

So If you wonder why we call U bitch
You wonder why we call U bitch
If you wonder why we call U bitch
You wonder why we call U bitch

As a result of of his attack on Mrs. Tucker in his rap album, Mrs. Tucker filed a $10 million lawsuit against Tupac:

“Dr. C. Delores Tucker, an outspoken critic of gangsta rap, has filed a $10 million lawsuit against the estate of the late rapper Tupac Shakur charging that he made derogatory comments about her in his music.

Dr. Tucker, chair of the National Political Congress of Black Women Inc., says songs on Shakur’s hit album All Eyez On Me have caused her “mental pain, suffering and inconvenience.”

The suit also notes because of Shakur’s music, Dr. Tucker has “suffered severe emotional distress including, but not limited to, feelings of fright,, shock, humiliation and outrage.”

On the tune Wonda Why They Call U B—–h Shakur raps: “Got your legs up trying to get rich. Keep your head up and your legs closed Dear Ms. Delores Tucker.” Dr. Tucker states in the suit that the lyrics allude “to prostitution and tells why women are called bitches.”  (5)

Even Enema, the so-called wannabe gangsta rapper, and other rappers, dug their talons into Mrs. Tucker:

 

“In the song “Rap Game” by his group D12, Eminem raps “I’m all for America, fuck the government / Tell that C. DeLores Tucker slut to suck a dick / Motherfucker ducked, what the fuck? Son of a bitch / Take away my gun, I’m gonna tuck some other shit”. In his song “Church for Thugs”, The Game raps “I’ve got more hatred in my soul than Pac had for DeLores Tucker.” Jay-Z chimes in as well, with the lines “I don’t care if you’re C. Dolores Tucker or you’re Bill O’Reilly, you only riling me up,” from The Black Album’s “Threat.” Much of KRS-ONE and Channel Live’s “Free Mumia” is a direct criticism of what the MCs see as Tucker’s misplaced energy.”  (6)

The attacks escalated when Marion “Suge” Knight of Death Row Records met at his office with Mrs. Tucker over the issue of rap lyrics:

 

“As Tucker explained to Chicago Tribune writer Monica Fountain, “these images of black young kids acting like gangstas go all around the world.” She objected to such lyrics being sold to minors and asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation to launch an inquiry. Both the NAACP and the Congressional Black Caucus lent support to Tucker’s cause. Congressional hearings were held on the subject in 1994, and soon afterward Tucker set her sights on an even larger target, the Time Warner media empire. The company distributed Interscope, whose rap subsidiary, Death Row Records, put out the recordings of some of the most popular gangsta artists. Tucker purchased stock in Time Warner, which allowed her the privilege of attending shareholders’ meetings and speaking out. At a May 1995 shareholders’ meeting, she stood and asked the executives to read aloud the very lyrics through which their company reaped such profits. They refused. “How long will Time Warner continue to put profit before principle?” she asked at the meeting, according to Fountain’s Chicago Tribune article. “How long will it continue to turn its back on the thousands of young people who are dying spiritually and physically due to the violence perpetuated in these recordings?”

Tucker also focused her ire at Time Warner chair Gerald Levin. “I told him about the black males-25 percent are either in jail or under some judicial regulation, ” she declared in another Chicago Tribune profile by Sonya Ross. “I said, ‘Mr. Levin, how are we going to raise a race of people with no men?”‘ Tucker has also noted that she has served as surrogate parent to many nieces and nephews, not all of whom went down the right path, and over the years came to realize that cultural forces and images play a large role in shaping self-esteem. Not long after the incident, Time Warner sold its interest in Interscope. Tucker considered it a victory, but Death Row head Marion “Suge” Knight hired investigators and then filed suit against Tucker on behalf of his roster of artists. She was accused of conspiracy and extortion as a result of a meeting with Knight at which two recording artists (who were also National Political Caucus of Black Women members), Melba Moore and Dionne Warwick, were also present. Supposedly the women offered Knight a deal to leave Interscope and sign with a black-owned record company they planned, but Tucker retorted that they had simply asked him to try for more positive messages in his artists’ music. He said he would need “distribution” to engineer such a situation, and Moore and Knight agreed then to look into financing for such a possible black-owned enterprise.

Some believed that Knight and the gangsta-rap camp had set Tucker up. A smear campaign had indeed been launched against her, which brought up her 1977 Pennsylvania dismissal as well as the fact that in the 1960s the properties her mother had owned and passed on to Tucker and her husband had deteriorated to substandard conditions. (Tucker recounted in a Los Angeles Times interview with Chuck Philips that back then, she and her husband had “rented to displaced women on welfare with six or seven children who couldn’t get housing anywhere else. We tried to help them, but the tenants never paid their rent…. Itgot to the point where they had to all be boarded up.”)

Still, Tucker refused to back down in her campaign to stop the potentially harmful messages espoused by gangsta rap. “It’s important to pay attention to who is dredging up all these charges, ” Tucker told Philips in the Los Angeles Times. “Remember, these are the same people who are out there pimping pornography to your children. Their record and records speak for them.” She called for a boycott of a large record chain, and others rallied in support; singer Anita Baker gave a $10, 000 check toward her defense fund. Tucker, a lifelong Democrat, also earned support from unlikely corners-former U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennett became an ally. The two often appear at the same speaking engagements against rap lyrics. “She’s a daunting figure, ” Bennett told Weintraub of the Washington Post. “Usually I’m the noisy one, but she’s ferocious.”  (7)

But, Mrs. Tucker prevailed. She told reporters and the public that her fight was with the music of rappers, and that rap, and hip-hop, could have positive lyrics that enhanced and uplifted, rather than lyrics that denigrated and assailed the humanity of its listeners, especially the lyrics that dripped of violent misogyny.

Mrs. Tucker wanted to see rap and hip-hop artists create music that confronted and challenged the surround social ills that plagued the Black community:  sub-standard education, poverty, economic and environmental racism, rape, and domestic abuse. She had no problem with rappers expressing themselves, but, the rank misogyny and crass materialism left an empty void that would have long-term far-reaching effects on the Black community.

In essence:  the rappers did not have to sink to the lowest common denominator to make a buck, at the expense of young Blacks, and most especially, at the expense of Black women.

Mrs. Tucker continued to fight for her convictions whether it was a corporation that peddled smut disguised as music, or television programs that were no more than mindless trash, and most of all, music that assaulted the mind. 

In her lifetime, Mrs. Tucker had received over 300 honors, was publisher of Vital Issues: The Journal of African American Speeches, and had served as a vice-president of the Philadelphia Tribune since 1989.

In the interview with Stanley  Weintraub of the Washington Post, Mrs. Tucker did admit to wondering who might fill her shoes: “I wish other people could do what I’m doing so I could step back and retire.”

Dr. Tucker died on Wednesday, October 12, 2005, of a heart ailment and lung condition, at Suburban Woods Health Center in Norristown, Pennsylvania at the age of 78.

After her death, she was remembered for her dedication with an historical state marker and a state building that bears her name:

“On Tuesday, April 25, 2006, a state historical marker honoring Tucker was unveiled in a ceremony at the State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, in her honor by Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, and William Tucker, her husband.

In addition, it was announced that the North Building which is adjacent to the State Capitol Building, will be renamed the Secretary C. Delores Tucker Building. The state marker is to be installed outside the entrance to the newly named building.

The marker reads:

C. Delores Tucker

1927—2005

Civil rights leader and activist for women, she was the first African American Secretary of State in the nation. Championed the PA Equal Rights Amendment and policies on affirmative action, voter registration by mail, and lowering the voting age to 18. Spearheaded the creation of the Commission on the Status of Women & led a successful crusade critical of the music industry and lyrics demeaning to women, African Americans, and children.”  (8)

This October 12, 2010, will mark the 5TH Anniversary of the passing of Mrs. C. Delores Tucker.

Her’s are big shoes to fill, and hers is a legacy that still stands the test of time.

At a time when she was beset and besieged by those who wanted to silence her, Mrs. C. Delores Tucker made a lasting impression on a nation that had become complacent and apathetic in the face of the ravages of hardcore gansta rap.

May she rest in peace, and may her valiant efforts to make rap music a better and more progressive music never be forgotten.

Rest in peace, Mrs. Tucker.

Rest in peace.

SALUTARE.

 

 

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BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1.  Notable Black American Women, Jessie Carney Smith, editor, Gale Research, Inc., 1992, pgs. 1155-1156.

2.  Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia, Volume II,  Darlene Clack Hine, et. al., 1993, Carlson Publishing, Inc., pgs. 1180-1181.

3.  Los Angeles Times, “Time-Warner Braces For Complaints Against Rap“, May 18, 1995.

4.  Los Angeles Times, “Profits From the Rap Music It Rejected“, February 23, 1996.

5.  Jet Magazine, “C. Delores Tucker Files $10 Million Lawsuit Against Tupac Shakur’s Estate“, September 1, 1997.

6.  C. Delores Tucker: Biography.

7. Ibid.

8.  Op cit.

RELATED LINKS:

C. DELORES TUCKER (LA TIMES)