Public Employee Press

City Council honors DC 37’s Belinda Dixon

At a City Hall tribute to Black history, culture and achievement featuring jazz great Wynton Marsalis, DC 37’s Belinda Dixon was among six African Americans honored Feb. 24 by the City Council with an Advance Woman of Achievement Award.

Dixon, a member of Clerical-Administrative Local 1549 and a longtime political activist, was cited for “outstanding advocacy, sterling achievement and unfaltering dedication to the well-being of neighbors and community.”

“I was truly humbled to learn I was being honored with people I consider legends — the late Ed Bradley and Katherine Dunham, and Assemblyman José Rivera, who fought to end the Navy’s practice bombing on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques,” said Dixon.

Dixon led a decade-long campaign for a public library in her Mariners Harbor neighborhood on Staten Island. A $10 million capital project to build the library is now in place. Now she is fighting for a public hospital; Staten Island has none.

Dixon is a Democratic district leader, a Democratic County Committee member and a local NAACP executive board member. City Council member Michael McMahon nominated Dixon, who credits her community work to the training she received from her union.

“When you hang out with people like Lillian Roberts, Cleve Robinson and Al Sharpton, you are taught by the best,” said Dixon. “After talking with them you realize you have a responsibility to do more for your community. I am blessed to share DC 37’s rich heritage, its power and resources. To have all that and not use it to help others would be almost sacrilegious.”

— Diane S. Williams