Yvonne Brathwaite Burke ’53

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Yvonne Brathwaite Burke has served as county supervisor, representing the Second District, since 1992, but she has served the people of Los Angeles County in a variety of ways far longer.

Elected to the State Assembly in 1966, Burke authored legislation which benefited California’s indigent children, residents of nursing and convalescent homes and orphanages and the victims of “eminent domain,” which is used by local governments for urban renewal and expansion projects.

In 1972, Burke was the first woman elected to Congress from California in 20 years as well as the first African-American woman ever elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from California. As a congresswoman, she served on the Appropriations Committee – Department of State, Justice and Commerce and on the Select Committee on Assassinations.

Legislation sponsored by Burke has emphasized equal opportunity for such diverse groups as displaced homemakers and construction workers on the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline. A portion of the bill for Equal Opportunity for Displaced Homemakers was amended and included in the 1978 Comprehensive Employment and Training Act. It provided federally subsidized employment and training for persons who had previously worked in the home without compensations and were left without adequate economic support through death or divorce. The “Burke Amendment” also bound federal pipeline funds to an affirmative action program, resulting in the awarding of $312 million in contracts to women and minority-owned businesses.

Burke served as vice chair of the 1972 Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Miami Beach, where she presided over the most volatile session in convention history during the absence of DNC chair Lawrence O’Brien. Other DNC activities include work on the Drafting Subcommittee of the Democratic Platform Committee and the Task Force on Foreign and Defense Policy. She formerly served on the University of California Board of Regents, the Ford Foundation, the Educational Testing Service and as chair of the Los Angeles branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

Burke’s commitments are many and varied. As supervisor, she chairs the following county departments: Affirmative Action; Community Development Commission; Human Resources; Museum of Natural History; Parks and Recreation; Superintendent of Schools; and Public Library. She is a member of the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission and of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). She chaired the board of supervisors from 1993–1994.

Burke also is a member of the Amateur Athletic Foundation Board of Trustees; the National Academy of Public Administration; the National Association of Counties; the Coalition of 100 Black Women; the Trusteeship; the National Advisory Council – Gene Autry Museum; and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Board of Directors.

Burke has received numerous honors and awards over an illustrious public and private sector career spanning three decades. Time magazine named her one of “America’s 200 Future Leaders.” She was selected as a “Woman of the Year” by the Los Angeles Times, received the USC Outstanding Alumni Award and is the recipient of the Sojourner Truth Award from the Negro Business & Professional Women’s Club. She is a fellow of Yale University and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. In 1983, she received the UCLA Alumni Association Award of Excellence for Public Service.