Educator, activist and civic leader Cecilia “CeeCee” Tucker died late last month. Tucker was an icon in the Hampton Roads civil rights fight and an advocate for diversity and equity initiatives long before the phrase entered the popular lexicon. She was 86.
Tucker grew up in Mecklenburg County during the Jim Crow era. In the late 1950s. She went on to study biology at Virginia Union University, where she met the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
This past February, Tucker shared memories of that meeting with WAVY TV 10. During her interview, she displayed a cherished keepsake — a bible signed by King and his wife, Coretta Scott King.
In 1963, Tucker participated in the March on Washington and heard King's ‘I Have a Dream’ speech firsthand.
“Who knew the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, how important it is in our lives today, and all of the things that he had to say are still things that we are looking forward to,” she said in February.
Tucker lived her life modeling the words she heard that day, evolving into a guiding force in civic engagement and civil rights. Her work crossed into many areas, from the field of education to her work with religious institutions and nonprofits, always showing vision and leadership.
Local doctor Keith Newby told WHRO’s Another View with Barbara Hamm Lee that Tucker always looked and acted “immaculate.”
“Her intellect, her community engagement work, her caring of people, regardless of any other issue, always came out,” he said.
Early in her career, Tucker taught biology at Booker T. Washington High School in Norfolk. She would go on to serve as an administrator at the Phyllis Wheatley YWCA and on the board of the Hunton YMCA.
Throughout her life, Tucker focused on equity and inclusion. She was a founding member of the Urban League of Hampton Roads and served as Assistant to the President for Community Relations at Old Dominion University for 31 years.
“I went to my president, the person who hired me, and he said, ‘The vision is still the same. We're going to change the image of Old Dominion University, and we're going to make it an institution of all people and for all people,’” Tucker told Wavy.
“So he gave me a pretty big budget and told me to do what you have to do to get that going. And so we did a number of things over here, including inviting people to every kind of event we had on the campus, every dinner, every reception, every concert, every basketball game. It was like pulling hen's teeth in the beginning because people had a negative feeling about coming to Old Dominion. But after it got going, people would call me and say, ‘Can you get me a ticket for this?’ or ‘Can I get over there for that?’ because we treated people well.”
Just before her retirement from ODU, Tucker got involved with Virginia Wesleyan University, working closely with the university leadership and the President's Council for Inclusive Communities to further VWU’s institutional action plan.
She was a member of Bank Street Baptist Church and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
Depending on who you talk to, words like mentor, connector, advisor and bridge builder are used to describe Tucker.
She is survived by her family and numerous friends and colleagues across the Hampton Roads region.
